Cluedo S
by Relm Wanderer
Summary: This is a Slayers/Clue fusion. [yes Clue as in the board game.] Ment to be done a sort of film noir style
1. Cluedo S, act 1

Cluedo S

Act One

By Relm

~*~

The room was deathly silent as everyone stood together after being gathered into the living room of the Boddy Manor. This is where the body had been found dead of unknown causes, but it was very apparent that he had been murdered, and by one of the people in the room. Everyone looked at everyone else with suspicion. The only person who knew the murderer was was the murderer them self. 

~*~

Detective De Tanga Tealson stretched in his chair at his desk. It was a slow day at the station. The only things he could do to pass the time was engage in idle chat with his fellow officers or drink stale coffee. Neither was appealing so De Tanga just sat there staring at the wall. He was thinking of laying back and taking a little nap but only of the chief's lackeys disturbed his thoughts. 

"Chief wants to see you in his office right now." The annoying nameless lackey ordered De Tanga. 

De Tanga gave the lackey a sour look before getting out of his chair and heading over to the chief's office. 

Inside the office the chief of police seemed to be having a very heated conversation with the mayor of the city, Philionel White. 

"I can't believe that you would even think that my dear daughter could be the culprit of that terrible crime!" 

"I know Mayor White, but your daughter was at the crime scene along with the other people when it happened, so that makes her a suspect." The chief said dryly. It was obvious that he wasn't enjoying having to deal with the loud and distraught mayor. The chief adverted his eyes towards the doorway and saw De Tanga looking at him with curiosity. 

"Ah yes Detective Tealson, come in. I was just talking with Mayor White about a case you are going to be assigned to." The chief stood up and motioned for De Tanga to take a seat next to the mayor. 

"A case that I going to be assigned to? Hmm… so what is this case?" 

"Well Tealson, you know of the famous Mr. Boddy don't you?" The chief went to sit back down at his chair and shuffled the papers in front of him. 

"Yes I know Mr. Boddy. He's that rich guy who lives up in Boddy Manor, that large estate on the hill near the edge of the city limits." 

"Yes well Mr. Boddy is no longer alive." The chief handed a case file to De Tanga for him to look over. "Mr. Boddy was murdered in his estate approximately two days ago. It was determined that the cause of death is unknown and that where he had been found was not where he had been killed." 

"According to this file it says that Sergeant Zelgadis Gray was the one who was first on the scene." 

"Yes he had been going to see Mr. Boddy about possible prowler that he had seen sneaking around in the Boddy estate while he drove by in his car. Though Sergeant Gray has been known to be a reliable and trustworthy person, since he showed up so quickly after Mr. Boddy had been killed he like the other people who were at the Boddy estate when the murder took place, Sergeant Gray is also a suspect." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow at the chief. Though De Tanga didn't know Zelgadis Gray that well, he knew from what he'd seen and what people told him that Sergeant Gray wasn't the type of person to do something like this. But then again it's always the most unlikely suspect that's usually the culprit. 

"In that case file you have in hands, each of the possible suspects for Mr. Boddy's murder are listed with background information on all of them. I expect you to review them all and have all of it memorized on your way over to the Boddy estate. All of the suspects are being kept at the Boddy Mansion by Sergeant Gray, who has no idea that he's a suspect too." 

Philionel White turned to De Tanga with a pleading look, "My little girl didn't do it honestly I know! You've got to believe me on that!" 

De Tanga looked away from the mayor and looked down at the case file to indeed see Amelia White as one of the names listed. "So Chief I'm supposed to leave right away?" 

"No first you need to get the officers who are going to be your partners on this case with you before you can go." 

"Partners?" De Tanga narrowed his eyes at the chief. He wasn't one to work with others, De Tanga always preferred to work alone. He didn't like the idea of having to work with someone else. And by the plural usage of partner the chief intended him to have not one but at least two partners on this case. "Why?" 

"This a big case Tealson, you are going to need help. So I think it's in your best interest if you worked with the two other officers I've chosen." 

"And what two officers have you chosen then?" De Tanga glared at the chief. 

"Officers Hallas Beige and Death Noir." 

De Tanga almost fell out of his seat. Hallas Beige was a complete klutz who could barely do anything right and Death Noir had only been transferred to their station a week prior. "So I'm working with the klutz and the new guy?" Bitterness dripped from his voice. 

"Officer Beige is not a klutz. He's going because despite his faults he's a very smart and observant officer. And from what I've heard of Officer Noir from his last station, he's a very competent officer who should be very helpful. No go and get them briefed on the case and get over to the Boddy estate." The chief ordered and De Tanga complied. 

~*~

It didn't take long for De Tanga to find Hallas Beige. Hallas sitting at his desk mulling over some papers that he had laid out in front of him. Being the person that he was, many people loved to take advantage of him. Even his fellow officers. What Hallas had in front of him was a mountain pile of paperwork for various cases that other officers had done. Somehow Hallas had been conned into doing all the paperwork for them. 

It was bad all right, but it was also so easy. De Tanga evilly smiled as he approached the annoying officer. He too had gotten to do paperwork for him too. 

"Hey Hallas!" De Tanga yelled sneaking up behind him. 

"AHHHH!!!!!" Hallas jumped scattering all the papers on his desk all over the floor. "De-detective Tealson! What can I do for you?" Hallas sputtered out while trying to get all the papers off the floor. 

"You've been assigned to work with me on a case-" 

"I have?!?!? WOW!!! I get to work on a case with the Detective De Tanga Tealson! I can't believe it-" 

"Shut up already. Geesh! Anyway come on let's go and find Officer Death Noir." De Tanga shook his head. He couldn't believe that someone could be that excited about doing a case. 'Youthful enthusiasm. I wonder was I ever that enthusiastic?' 

"Officer Noir? Why him?" 

"Because he's the other guy that we're working with for this case." 

~*~

It took De Tanga and Hallas quite a while to find Officer Noir. Since he was so new no one knew what he did with his time. In fact people rarely ever saw Death Noir unless he was getting something from his desk. 

With very few places left to go De Tanga and Hallas checked out the shooting range in the lower levels of the police station. Sure enough down there shooting targets with his gun was Death Noir. 

Death glared at the target as he fired. Two of his long bangs of his short black haired almost fell over his gray black eyes but didn't hamper his vision. He got every target that he aimed for. 

De Tanga called Death over and the officer complied and came over. Death had a very serious and dark look to his face as he glared at the people interrupting his gun practice. "What do you want?" Death asked in a very dry tone. 

"Are you Officer Death Noir?" 

"Yes." Death narrowed his eyes further at De Tanga. 

"Well you've been assigned to work with Officer Beige and I on a case." 

"So I have to work with _you_ two?" Death emphasized the word 'you' with a note of irritation apparent in his voice. He still glared at De Tanga with an evil and serious look. 

"Yes." 

Death put his gun back in his holster and looked up at Hallas and De Tanga. "Okay then let's go! Hee hee hee!" Death said cheerily and smiled broadly. 

Both De Tanga and Hallas facefault. 

Death blinked in confusion. "Hey are you two alright?" He said while poking De Tanga on the side. 

De Tanga regain his composure and jumped back to his feet. He stared at Death in disbelief. 'One minute he's bad assed evil angry scary guy and the next he's happy-go-lucky and cheery. What the hell is going on here?!?!' De Tanga sweatdropped. 

"Oi Detective Tealson shouldn't we get going?" Death asked with a big bright smile. 

De Tanga had to look away from Death because the smile was too much for him. "Yeah let's get going." 

~*~

With Death driving and having a nice conversation with Hallas, De Tanga was left reading over the case file on their way over to the Boddy estate. He decided to read over the background on Amelia White first. What he found on the mayor's daughter was that she was had been working as a part time maid at the Boddy Manor. She didn't have any possible motive listed or any other really useful information. What she had been doing the day of Mr. Boddy's death was catering to some of Mr. Boddy's uninvited guests. To what De Tanga could read up on Mr. Boddy, was that many people dropped by unannounced to see Mr. Boddy for specific reason usually concerning money. That day had been the day that a big storm had hit the city and everyone had been cautioned not to leave their homes. With all these people already at the Boddy Manor, Mr. Boddy had them all invited to stay the night till the storm let up. 

While De Tanga continued reading Hallas and Death continued chatting away. They were talking so much that De Tanga almost wanted to scream at them to shut up. But instead he tried his best to ignore the two. 'This is one of the reasons why I don't work with partners…' 

~*~

An hour or so later De Tanga, Hallas and Death reached the Boddy estate. When De Tanga saw the Boddy Manor, boy was he happy. Since the ride was so long to get to the Boddy estate since it was so close to being out of the city limits he had to stick through his two 'partners' constant and annoying chatter. He breathed a big sigh of relief once he got out of the unmarked police car and stepped out onto the driveway. 

"Detective Tealson, why are we here for anyway?" Hallas snapped De Tanga out of his thoughts. 

"Because Hallas, there's been a murder here." 

"Who was killed." 

"Mr. Boddy." 

Death and Hallas looked at each other with disbelief and followed De Tanga to the front door. 

De Tanga rang the doorbell and patiently waited. A few moments later a short girl with shoulder length black hair, blue eyes and in a maid's uniform answered the door. 

"Ahh, you must be Amelia White. I'm Detective De Tanga Tealson. I do believe that Sergeant Gray has been expecting me?" De Tanga showed his credentials to Amelia. 

"Oh yes, come in." 

Amelia ushered them into the room where everyone had been gathered, the living room, where Mr. Boddy's dead body had been found. 

De Tanga eyed the room. He saw all ten suspects that had been listed in the case file that the chief had given him. Every one of the suspects gave De Tanga, Hallas and Death suspicious stares, except for a man dressed in dark purple who had dark purple hair as well. He smiled at the three as he fiddled with his glasses to get a better look at them. De Tanga didn't like that smile. It was a very smug and all-knowing smile; like that man knew something that others didn't. 

"Hello Detective Tealson, I'm Sergeant Gray." A voice interrupted De Tanga's thoughts. He turned his attention to Zelgadis Grey. Zelgadis stood very straight and stiff with a very stoic look on his face. 

"Greetings Sergeant Gray. I'm as you know Detective Tealson. The two behind me are Officers Hallas Beige and Death Noir." 

"Hi." Both officers said respectively. Zelgadis nodded to the two and looked back at De Tanga whom seemed to be deep in thought. 

"So Sergeant Gray how about we start with what you all know, and where each person was during the estimated time of Mr. Boddy's time of death and any other bit of information that you can think of that might be helpful?" De Tanga asked while taking a seat, flipping out his small notepad and pen and pulling out the case file. 


	2. Cluedo S, act 2

Cluedo S

Act Two

By Relm

~*~

"What do you want to know first?" 

"Well first of all Sergeant Gray, how about we start off with where Mr. Boddy's body is and what you figure to be the cause of death." De Tanga looked over to the Sergeant to see that he was staring at the ground avoiding his eyes. De Tanga looked around everyone else in the room. All the suspects were avoiding De Tanga's gaze and they seemed nervous too. 

"I don't think I can tell you what I think the cause of death was." Zelgadis' voice was calm despite the uneasiness that was displayed him his face. 

"And why is that?" 

"I only got a quick look at Mr. Boddy's body when I got into the room. Realizing that he had been murdered I went to gather everyone in the manor to question them. When I got back to the room where Mr. Boddy was I discovered that he was gone." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow at Zelgadis. "Gone? You mean so say that his body just disappeared?" 

"Yes. I believe that Mr. Boddy was moved to another room in the manor but not sure who did it or the means from which they moved him." 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"When I went to examine the room that Mr. Boddy had been in I couldn't find any traces that could give me any clue of where Mr. Boddy could have moved. In fact there hadn't been any traces at all. No blood trails, no dirt no nothing. The only visible thing was the blood that you can see very visibly which is where Mr. Boddy had been found." Zelgadis fidgeted with the cuffs of his uniform. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable in this line of questioning. 

"And you have no idea who did this?" 

"Not a clue. When I went looking for everyone the room was unattended. Anyone of us could have moved him before we were all gathered together. And we've tried to search around the manor if we can find where Mr. Boddy's body had been moved to, but we haven't managed to find where the body had been hidden." 

As Zelgadis talked De Tanga took notes on everything that the young Sergeant said. De Tanga wasn't surprised that the body was missing. If it weren't then it would have made it too easy. "Tell me Sergeant Gray from what little you saw of Mr. Boddy before he disappeared what do you think could have been the cause of death? Also I'd like you to tell me what you did when you discovered his body." 

"Well when I found Mr. Boddy he was laying on his stomach covered with blood and blood surrounding him. I guess I would say that it might have been a wound to his front or his head. But there was so much blood it was hard to say. I went to check his pulse and I discovered that he was dead. And that's when I left to look for everyone." 

"Why did you come to living room? Did you hear a noise?" 

"No I was looking for Mr. Boddy and his maid Miss White told me that he might be in here." 

Everyone's eyes turned to the young Miss White who fiddled with her apron in her hands nervously. 

"You don't think that I-I-I kil-kil-killed Mr. Boddy do you?" Amelia stuttered out with a horrified expression. 

"No one is saying that you did Miss White. But tell me how did you know that Mr. Boddy was in the living room?" 

"I didn't know, I guessed. Mr. Boddy sometimes likes to go into the living room with a book that he got from his library to read on the couch by the fire. Or he used to before he was…" Amelia trailed off with tears threatening to pour down her cheeks. "I can't believe that someone would want kill Mr. Boddy! He was such a nice and kind man! It's so unjust!" 

"Well that would seem so… How about you all introduce yourselves and tell me your reasons for coming to the Boddy Manor." De Tanga looked around the room for the first volunteer. No one said anything for even looked up. 'I guess I'll need to pick someone.' He looked over to Zelgadis who cleared his throat to speak. 

"Well as you already know I'm Sergeant Zelgadis Gray and I came over to the Boddy Manor because I thought I saw a prowler sneaking around his estate." 

"Tell me Sergeant Gray, why exactly were you in this area of town in the first place? It's kinda far from the city, and it was a stormy night on top of that." 

"Well I had been called to this area by a far away neighbor of Mr. Boddy who spotted a prowler sneaking around her property. I went over there asked some questions and help out the woman and then I went driving around to see if I could question anyone about the possible prowler in the area. Then when I went by Mr. Boddy's estate and saw someone sneaking around, so I went in to investigate." The annoyance in Zelgadis' face became more apparent. 'What does he suspect me as the killer?' 

"And what was the name of the woman that you went to see before coming over here?" 

"Melissa Potiron." 

"Thank you very much Sergeant. Now how about Miss White? You work here part time as a maid for Mr. Boddy?" 

"Yes." 

"Do you normally stay nights here?" 

"No. I only did it that day because of the storm. Mr. Boddy insisted that I stay the night because he didn't want me to have an accident on the road because of the storm." 

De Tanga nodded his head while writing down the information that she told him. 'I'll have to get Hallas or Death to go over to Miss Potiron's place to check out Sergeant Gray's story.' "Thank you Miss White. Now who's next? How about you?" De Tanga asked the suspicious man in the dark purple suit with the dark purple hair and glasses. 

"Oh me? Well I'm Professor Xellos Plum. I'm a dear old friend of Mr. Boddy. I came over here in hopes that he might want to help out with an upcoming archeology expedition that I plan to go on." Xellos fiddled with his glasses while smiled a little half smiled. 

Amelia narrowed her eyes at the estranged Professor. It was apparent that she didn't like him too much. De Tanga saw this from the corner of his eye. 'I think I shall question Miss White about Professor Plum later on when I can speak with her alone.' 

"And how exactly were you hoping Mr. Boddy would help you out?" 

"I was hoping that he might want to help fund the expedition. You see the organization that I work with is a little low on its funds." 

"And you stayed the night because of the storm right?" 

"No actually Mr. Boddy and I had arranged for me to stay for a couple of days for my visit before I came to town. It is so rare that we'd have time to see each other." 

"I see." De Tanga didn't like the way that Xellos continued to smile. 'If was as good of friends with Mr. Boddy as he said then I doubt he should be so happy and cheerful as he is with the murder of his friend.' De Tanga turned to the blond man sitting off to his side with a sword attached to his belt. "So who are you, and why were you seeing Mr. Boddy for on the night of his death?" 

The blond man looked at him blankly for a few moments before he finally talked. "I'm Colonel Gourry Mustard. I came to see Mr. Boddy because of something very important." 

"And what was the important thing?" 

Gourry sat there thinking very hard for a few minutes. Everyone starred at him waiting for him to speak. "You know… I can't remember at all." Gourry said while rubbing the back of his neck with a goofy smile. 

Everyone in the room facefaulted. 

De Tanga regained his composure and referred back to his information on Gourry Mustard. Mr. Boddy was a good friend with Gourry's father whom was a retired Colonel himself. According to the file, Gourry suffers from a learning disability and a very poor memory. But despite that he is very excellent with his swordsmanship skills and is a very talented marksman. "Alright then. How about you Miss?" 

The woman with the long fiery red hair glared at De Tanga. "I'm Lina Scarlet. I came to see Mr. Boddy about selling an item to him. I heard that he liked to collect lots of interesting an expensive things and I thought he might be interesting in the item that I had acquired recently." 

"And that item would be…?" 

"A very expensive and very beautiful blue diamond. I acquired in a trade I did recently in Spain." 

De Tanga nodded his head. 'Five down five more to go.' He looked over to the woman with long blond hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in a shade of light pale pink with a matching hat. From the case file De Tanga knew that this was Mr. Boddy's great-step-niece Filia Peach. "So you're Miss Peach, correct?" 

"Yes." 

"So what were you doing at the Boddy Manor on the night of the murder?" 

"Well I decided after quitting my job that I want to take a vacation. And since my great-step-uncle always encourages my family to come and visit him I decided to take him on his offer." 

A woman in the room snorted at Filia's words. De Tanga looked to the aqua haired woman whom was getting a very evil eye from Filia. "And you are?" 

"Martina Rose." Martina spoke in a very grandiose manner. 

"Actually her real name is Martina Rosengarten. She changed to that after she left for Hungary." Amelia spoke timidly. Until the day of Mr. Boddy's death Amelia hadn't seen Martina in a long time, but even now Amelia still felt timid and uneasy around Martina. 

"Now why would you know that Miss White?" De Tanga asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Before Amelia had a chance to speak, Martina spoke first. "Because I used to work for Mr. Boddy. I was his secretary for quite a few years." 

"Before you went to Hungary?" 

"Yes before I went to Hungary." 

"And why did you go there?" 

"I wanted to get out of the country and try something new. So I went there, changed my name and became a medium. I've always had psychic powers even when I was very little so I figured that I'd make a business out of it." There was a note of superiority to her voice as she spoke all snobby to them. 

Everyone in the room sweatdropped. Amelia just shook her head at Martina. 

'I guess I should talk to Miss White about Miss Rosengarten as well as Professor Plum later on.' De Tanga mused to himself. "So then Miss Rosengarten-" 

"Miss Rose." Martina interrupted with a very stern tone. 

"Alright, so then Miss Rose, why exactly did you come back here from Hungary to see Mr. Boddy?" 

"When I was in the midst of a séance I saw a dark, ominous cloud descending on the Boddy Manor. I knew that once I saw it that Mr. Boddy was in danger so I came here to warn him of the possible danger." 

"But he was killed anyway." 

"Yes, he didn't believe me that he was danger, but he should have heed my warning." 

"I suppose. So which one of you is Mr. Zangulus Brunette?" 

"That would be me." A man dressed in a dark brown suit and hat spoke from the back of the room. 

"So Mr. Brunette, why exactly were you here? It says in my case file that you are an art dealer. Where you here to see Mr. Boddy about selling a piece of art to him?" 

"No. Mr. Boddy asked me to come to his home. He invited me to take a look at some of the artwork that I had sold him a few months ago." 

"Why?" 

"Apparently there was a question of authenticity of the pieces." 

"Ah I see." 

There was a spell of silence in the room. There was only two more people left and neither one wanted to talk. Finally one of them decided to talk. "I'm Miss Sylphiel Peacock." A woman dressed in blue spoke up in a very soft voice. She had long dark hair and bright green eyes that were behind her glasses. 

"Alright Miss Peacock, why were you at the Boddy Manor that night?" 

"I'm an amateur ornithologist, so I'm always looking around to see if I can find interesting, rare or endangered birds. Durning the day of Mr. Boddy's murder I was driving by and I saw a pair of pied-bill grebe nesting near the Boddy Manor house I decided that I was going to see Mr. Boddy about donating part of his estate to the Salvation Society later on. So I went to see Mr. Boddy about the birds later on that night." 

"And you were asked to stay the night because of the storm." 

"Yes that is correct." 

De Tanga wrote down the information. 'I'm going to need to get some information on the Salvation Society. So let's see who left? Ah yes Mr. Boddy's accountant Mr. Green.' De Tanga looked over to the silent accountant. He was a tall man dressed in a dark green suit with semi-pale skin, his green hair neatly combed and a bored expression on his face. The only thing that seemed odd about Mr. Green was the fact that he had a palm-sized garnet that seemed to be attached to his forehead. "So by process of elimination that makes you Mr. Carbunkle Green." De Tanga asked the only other man left in the room that hadn't spoken yet. [Relm: I'm using Carbunkle's human form. I didn't think that it go with the seriousness of the fanfic if I made Carbunkle be in his esper form.] 

Carbunkle nodded his head and resumed to look off to the side with a bored expression. 

"So Mr. Green why were you here on the night of the murder?" 

"I'm Mr. Boddy's accountant, I was here because I was supposed to look over Mr. Boddy's income statement and general journal. I was asked to come because Mr. Boddy was curious to why he seemed to be missing equity recently." 

"Missing equity? So he was missing things like money and such?" 

"No he thought he was missing assets, but in real fact he wasn't. And it was a big waste of time too. I come all the way over here just to assure Mr. Boddy that everything is alright and I'm stuck here because of the stupid storm. And now I can't leave because I'm a suspect in this murder investigation." Carbunkle huffed with obvious annoyance. 

"Yes well Mr. Green once this case is solved you wont be restricted to stay in the Boddy Manor. So I hope that all of you will help out in any way you can so that we can make this investigation go quickly." De Tanga said to everyone and they nodded in reply. 


	3. Cluedo S, act 3

Cluedo S

Act Three

By Relm

~*~

De Tanga went over his notes for a bit, adding things and reading things over. Everyone in the room watched Detective De Tanga Tealson with interest. Everyone was curious to what exactly De Tanga had written down on his notepad and who he believed to be the murderer. De Tanga as he looked at what he had written felt the sensation of eyes staring at him and when he looked up he wasn't surprised to see that everyone's eyes were locked on him. He picked up the case file and went to look over one thing. 'Hmm… now that is a little questionable.' De Tanga looked up and cleared his throat. "Sergeant Gray you said in the report you made that Mr. Boddy hadn't been killed in this room." 

"Yes I did." 

"Well what reason do you have to believe that?" 

Zelgadis motioned for De Tanga to come over to where Mr. Boddy's body had been when he had found him. "Now if you look around the room you can see that there isn't any sign of struggle anywhere. And if Mr. Boddy had been killed in this room you would see more blood then just where his body had been. Like blood that had splattered on the walls or something. But besides where Mr. Boddy's body had been it's completely clean. I believe that Mr. Boddy had been killed elsewhere in the estate and brought here to this room." 

De Tanga mentally noted that it did seem very unlikely that Mr. Boddy had been murdered in this room. 'Unless the place had been cleaned after Mr. Boddy had been killed. Hmm…' "Well thank you for all your cooperation everyone. You don't have to stay in this room anymore. But you all still have to stay in Boddy Manor." 

Everyone got up and left the room respectively until only De Tanga, Hallas and Death were left in the room. Both the younger officers turned to De Tanga. "Detective Tealson what should we do now?" Hallas asked. 

"Hallas I want you to find out as much as you can about the Salvation Society that Miss Peacock is a member off." 

Hallas nodded. 

"And Death I want you to head out to go see Melissa Potiron to check out Sergeant Gray's story." 

"Do you really think it's wise for you to stay in the Boddy Manor with both of us gone?" 

De Tanga gave an annoyed glare at Officer Death Noir. "And why wouldn't it be 'wise'?" 

"Well Mr. Boddy was murdered here after all the killer is in this building. How do we know that the killer may not want to kill you?" 

De Tanga narrowed his eyes at the younger officer. "Who cares if he or she wants to kill me?! I've worked on far more dangerous cases then this and without a partner too! So you don't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself." 

Death shrugged and he and Hallas went off to do their assigned tasks. 

De Tanga shook his head with annoyance. 'Partners… gah!' He pulled back out his notepad and started to write things down. 

_Why had Mr. Boddy been moved from the place of murder? _

How could he have been moved? 

Who could have moved him? 

Why was he moved after he had been discovered? 

Where had he been moved to after his body had been discovered? 

De Tanga looked down at all the questions that he had written down. He had a lot of questions to answer and that's provided that Sergeant Zelgadis Gray's story is completely true. He was very well aware that Zelgadis could be lying to him. 'But for what reason would Sergeant Gray want to kill Mr. Boddy for? What would be the motive?' He sighed and got up to look around the room more closely. De Tanga still didn't have a clue on how the murderer could have moved the body. 'Whoever it was must have been strong so that more or less point towards the guys of this group.' 

He was going to write down in his notepad of the murderer probably being a man but then he thought back to some of his older cases. He remembered many scenarios where seemingly weak and fragile woman who were not suspected as the culprit because the strength required seemed more logical for it to have been a man. But those very same women were proven the guilty parties because in real fact they were strong despite their looks. 

De Tanga refrained from writing in his notepad and put it back in his jacket. 'Looks can definitely be deceiving. So until I can prove otherwise each person here is going to remain a suspect.' 

He examined the room a little more before he decided to check out some of the other rooms of the Boddy Manor. 

~*~

Officer Death Noir and Hallas Beige stepped outside the Boddy Manor and realized a little problem. Unless they decided to go together, then they needed another car. 

"Oh great so what are we supposed to do?" Death frowned. 

"Well I could drive you over to Melissa Potiron's, drop you off there and head over to the station and pick you up later." 

"Nah that's still going to be annoying if one of us needs to use the car and the other has it." 

They both sat there in silence for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. 

"Well Hallas how about this, I drive you over to the station and drop you off there. Then I could head over to the Potiron's place and you could sign for another car while you're at the station." 

Hallas thought about it and nodded. "Yeah that could work out okay. So when should we leave?" 

"First I want to call for directions on what Melissa Potiron's address is, so I know where it is when I get back." Death pulled out his cell phone and dialed up for information. 

A few minutes later they were on the road heading out towards the station. 

~*~

De Tanga wandered through the many rooms of the Boddy Manor. Around in the halls of the large estate portraits of Mr. Boddy were hung on the walls. While stopping to look at one of the paintings De Tanga noted a very interesting thing. When he had been talking to all the suspects about Mr. Boddy and their reasons for being at the dead man's estate Professor Xellos Plum had referred to Mr. Boddy as 'Mr. Boddy'. Professor Plum claimed to be 'a dear old friend' of Mr. Boddy. 'But if he was such good friends with Mr. Boddy, then why would Professor Plum call Mr. Boddy by his first name when talking about him?' De Tanga made a note of that in his notepad. He looked back up at the portrait and decided to make note of another thing. On how much Mr. Boddy seemed to resemble a certain suspect of his. 'I think I'll need to talk to Miss White very soon. I've got many things that I want to ask her about.' He put his notepad back in his jacket and decided to see if he could find the mayor's daughter. 

~*~

After Hallas had been dropped off Officer Death Noir made his way over to Melissa Potiron's home. Her house was a bit of a ways away from the Boddy Manor but she was definitely one of Mr. Boddy's only neighbors. Not that many people lived that far away from town. 

Death parked in front of Melissa Potiron's home. It was a large house though not as large as the Boddy Manor but still very close. 'Why is it that all the rich people want to live so far away?' Death shook his head and went up and pressed the doorbell at the front door of the house. 

An old man with silver gray answered wearing a black butler's outfit. "Yes Sir?" 

Death reached for his badge and flashed it at the butler. "Hi I'm Officer Death Noir and I'm investigating the murder of Mr. Boddy whom was killed a few days ago. I want to know if I can speak with Melissa Potiron to see if she can offer some information to help with the investigation." 

The butler looked over Death's credentials for a few moments before he spoke. "Just one moment Sir." The butler disappeared into the house for a few minutes before returning. "Come this way." 

The butler lead Death into a large room with sofas, chairs and a fireplace. 

"Please wait here, Miss Potiron will be with you in a few moments." And again the butler disappears into one of the many rooms of the house. 

Death sat down on one of the sofas and looked around the room a bit. 'Hmm… this place isn't half that bad. I wouldn't mind living in a home like this.' 

A minute or two later a woman in her early twenties with dark red-orange hair and dark green eyes came into the room. "Hello I'm Melissa Potiron, you're Officer Death Noir right?" 

"Yes that's right." Death responded showing her his badge. 

"It's such a shame to hear about Mr. Boddy. And he was such a nice man." 

"Ahem yes it was quite a shame. Now Miss Potiron would you be willing to answer a few questions?" Death pulled out his own notepad and a pen from his jacket. 

"Yes I would. I'd like to help in any way I can. But tell me how could I know anything that could help you?" 

"Well I wanted to ask about the prowler you called about on the night of Mr. Boddy's murder." 

"Really? You mean that prowler might have been the person who murdered Mr. Boddy?" Miss Potiron gasped in shock. 

"We aren't sure about it, but I'd like you describe exactly what happened that night." 

"Okay." Miss Potiron took a deep before telling Death exactly what happened. "Well I was reading a book in this very room while sitting on that sofa over there by the window. I was home alone because George had already left to go home for the night." 

"George?" Death raised an eyebrow. 

"Oh sorry! George, he's the man who showed you to this room. He's my butler." 

Death nodded and motioned for her to continue. 

"Alright where was I? Um yes I was reading by the window. The storm had just started up so there was a lot of thunder, lightning and rain. I looked up from my book occasionally to look through the window to see the storm. But I couldn't see much because it was dark out. So I'm reading and I looked up and didn't see much and as I was about to go back to my book a flash of lightning went and I saw a person standing outside my window." 

"Did you see who the person was?" 

"No I didn't. Because right after the lightning went the person was gone." 

"What did you do next?" 

"First I screamed, then I ran to the phone. I was positively frantic so when I called the people at the police station they thought I was just acting crazy. Then I tried calling Sergeant Gray." 

"And why did you call him?" 

"Because I've known Zelgadis for quite sometime. My mother used to baby-sit him when he was little. So I knew that Zelgadis would come if I called him." 

"And he came?" 

"Yes as quickly as he could. When he got here he asked me what happened and then he went to check around my home. Once he was done he came back to my front door and told me that the prowler had run off but he was going to check around the other areas to see if anyone knew anything. And then he left." 

"I see." Death nodded writing down what Melissa Potiron told him. 'Well it looks like Sergeant Gray's story checks out.' "Thank you very much Miss Potiron, I must be heading off now, I still have a lot more work to do." Death got up and so did Miss Potiron. 

"Alright Officer Noir. I'll show you to the door." 

She walked Death to the door and opened it for him. "I hope you manage to find out who the killer is." 

"Yes I hope so too. Good day to you Miss Potiron." Death nodded and went out the door in the direction of the car. 

"Wait Officer Noir!" Melissa Potiron called from her house. As sprinted over to him 

"Yes?" Death raised an eyebrow at her. 

"Could you deliver a message for me?" Miss Potiron said a bit out of breath. 

"Certainly. What message do you wish for me to deliver?" 

"Could you tell Sergeant Zelgadis Gray that I'm sorry that Mr. Boddy is dead?" 

"Um, sure…" 

"Thank you so much!" And with that Miss Potiron went back to her home. 

Death stood there by the car a bit confused. 'Why would she want me to tell Sergeant Gray that?' 


	4. Cluedo S, act 4

Cluedo S

Act Four

By Relm

~*~

Hallas' brow creased with worry. After getting back to the station and checking out information on the Salvation Society Hallas had signed up for another car and headed toward Boddy Manor. The problem? Hallas was currently lost. 

'Why am I so bad with directions?' 

Hallas pulled over and once again called for directions. 

~*~

De Tanga was checking out Mr. Boddy's lab when Death came back from his trip to Melissa Potiron's home. Mr. Boddy had been quite a famed scientist and had made quite a bit of money with his discoveries. 

"Detective Tealson?" Death called from the hallway. 

"I'm in the lab Death." 

Death poked his head in the lab. "Oh hi. So whatcha doing in here?" 

"I'm just checking out some of the rooms of the Boddy Manor." 

"Find anything useful?" 

"So far, no. But I've got a few interesting ideas things noted that I'm going to check out later. So what did you find about Sergeant Gray's story?" 

Death pulled out his notepad and looked it over for a few moments. "Well it looks like his story checks out. There was a prowler sneaking around Miss Potiron's home and she first called the police and then called Sergeant Gray." 

"Why?" 

"Well the police thought she was just being a basket case so she called Sergeant Gray afterwards and he came by." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow. "Why did she call him?" 

"She's known him for quite some time. Her mother apparently used to baby-sit Sergeant Gray when he was little." 

"So he came to check things out and left once he noticed that the prowler wasn't in the area and ended up here right?" De Tanga asked more to himself then to Death. 

"That's what Miss Potiron said." 

'Interesting… so Sergeant Gray knew Melissa Potiron.' He made a mental note that he also needed to talk to Zelgadis later on too. "Hmm… anything else?" 

"Yeah it was something weird that Miss Potiron said when I was about to leave." 

"What did she say?" 

"Well she asked me to deliver a message to Sergeant Gray. She wanted me to tell him that she's sorry that Mr. Boddy is dead." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow. "Why would she ask you to do that?" 

"That's what I was thinking when she asked me." Death put his notepad back in his jacket. 

"Hmm… more questions to be answered… well good work. So where's Hallas?" 

"Well when you sent us off on our tasks we realized that this wasn't going to work out right with only one car. So we decided that I would drive Hallas over to the station and while he's there he would get another car." 

"So basically you dropped him off there and went to Melissa Potiron's home?" 

"Yes that would be correct." 

De Tanga shook his head and lightly chuckled. "Well then I guess we'll be seeing Hallas for a little while." 

"Why do you say that?" Death looked at De Tanga in confusion. 

"Because Hallas is directionally impaired. He can't find his way around town if his life depended on it. He always gets himself lost." 

Death sweatdropped. "Then how does he manage to get to work on time?" 

"Carpool. He gets pick up at home and taken to work. Otherwise he probably wouldn't get to work at all." 

"Oh great, meaning he's probably lost on the road right now." 

"Yup probably. Well Death I want you to go check around the rooms of the Boddy Manor. If you find anything suspicious looking I want you to write it down and tell it to me later, alright?" 

"Okay. But are you going to do?" 

"Right now I'm going to see if I can have a little one on one chat with Miss Amelia White." 

"Well then you can find her over in the kitchen, I saw her head over there on my way here." 

"I'll see you later then." 

De Tanga after a few minutes found his way over to the kitchen. Amelia was inside doing some cleaning. "Miss White may I speak to you for a few minutes?" 

Amelia whom had been unaware of De Tanga coming in was startled by his voice. "Oh my! Detective Tealson you scared me!" 

"I do apologize Miss White." De Tanga walked over to the kitchen table and motioned for Amelia to join him. 

"So Detective De Tanga how can I help you?" Amelia asked while taking a chair at the table. 

"Well I was hoping that you could clear up a few things with me. So if you don't mind I'd like to ask you a few questions." De Tanga pulled out his notepad and pen. 

"I don't mind at all. What do you want to ask me?" 

"First of all I want know about Mr. Boddy's relationship with Professor Xellos Plum." 

Amelia frowned at the mention of Xellos' name. "What do you want to know about it?" 

"Well when I was talking to Professor Plum back in the living room with everyone else you seemed to regard him with suspicion. I take it you don't trust him that much?" De Tanga looked up from his notepad. 

"That's putting it mildly… Well I'm aware that Professor Plum and Mr. Boddy have been friends for quite some time. I learned that when I started working her a few years ago. Only I've always found Professor Plum… odd." 

"Odd? In what way?" 

"Well the way he speaks, the way he acts around people… He acts so suspicious all the time that sometimes I wonder if he's up to something rotten. And look at him today. Here his best friend of many years is dead, murdered by one of the people in this building and he doesn't seem worried, angry or upset even. All he can do is act cheerful." Amelia mentally shuddered. Xellos' constant grin always gives her the creeps. 

De Tanga frowned. "I did notice that. And another thing I wondered about was why he refer to Mr. Boddy as Mr. Boddy? If they were such good friends then shouldn't he call him by his first name?" 

"Well that's the way they had always been. Mr. Boddy called him Xellos and Professor Plum called him Mr. Boddy. Those two had a very strange friendship… like sometimes I wondered…" Amelia trailed off and didn't finish her sentence. 

"You wondered what?" De Tanga prompted. 

"Um well… it's just that I sometimes wondered if they were really friends at all. They acted like friends when they were around people, but that's what it appeared as, acting. It kinda looked like to me that they were only pretending that they were friends." 

"Hmmm… strange. Do you think Professor Plum could have murdered Mr. Boddy?" 

Amelia frowned in thought. "The night that Mr. Boddy had been killed a few hours before his death, Mr. Boddy and Professor had a discussion in Mr. Boddy's study right after Professor Plum arrived at the manor. I didn't think much of the two of them talking at the time but when I cleaning in the halls I heard Mr. Boddy raising his voice at Professor Plum. It sounded like they were having an argument." 

"Do you know what it was about?" 

"No I couldn't hear anything clearly. Everything was muffled." 

"Alright, now I want to ask you some questions about Martina Rose. Did she really leave to go and become a medium in another country?" He looked over to Amelia and saw her flinch at the mention of Martina Rose's name. 

"Actually no that wasn't the reason she left. Miss Rosen- I mean Miss Rose wasn't a very good secretary. She'd forget messages, loose papers and was generally very rude and bitter. But Mr. Boddy even though he had good reason to fire her never did. I don't know why though. Some people believed because the two of them were romantically involved, but I'm not sure. It wasn't until Mr. Boddy found that Miss Rose was stealing money and other things from the manor that Mr. Boddy finally fired her. She tried to cover up her anger and resentment for getting fired by going on about how she didn't care because she was going to go Hungry to become a medium. But even with the cover up we could still see how enraged she really was." Amelia distinctively remembered the evil look in Martina's eyes. If looks could kill… 

"Do you think that she would hold a grudge and would be violent enough to get revenge and kill him?" 

"I don't know… I always used to stay away from Miss Rose, she scared me." 

"Tell me, what was Sergeant Zelgadis Gray's relationship with Mr. Boddy?" 

"I'm not sure why, but if there was any problem around the manor where the police needed to be involved, Mr. Boddy would only trust Sergeant Gray. He wouldn't let anyone else come to his home to deal with matters. It was either Sergeant Gray or no one else." 

"And you don't know why?" 

"I never bothered to ask." 

"Is there anything else you could tell me about any of the other people in the manor?" 

Amelia tapped her finger on the table in thought. "Well Mister Brunette has sold many works of art to Mr. Boddy over the years, but I never saw him that often because whenever he was here he never stayed long. I know nothing of Miss Peacock because I only met her that night that this all happened as well with Miss Scarlet. As for Mister Green, he's never happy when he's here. He's always grouchy whenever he's dealing with Mr. Boddy, but that might be because Mr. Boddy always second-guessed his work. Now I don't really know that much about Miss Peach-" 

"You don't? I thought she was a relative of Mr. Boddy?" 

"Yes I supposed she is, but they are barely related at all. Until she came that night I didn't know that Mr. Boddy had a great-step-niece named Filia Peach. I even wonder if she's even related to him at all." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean is that she could easily be pretending to be related to Mr. Boddy to get at his money." 

"Well how did Mr. Boddy react when he saw her?" 

"She told him who she was and he welcomed her in. But I'm pretty sure that Mr. Boddy didn't know who she was. He didn't keep good ties with his family so I doubt he would have known if someone was or wasn't part of his family." 

"I see. Thank you very much for your time Miss White." De Tanga wrote that last bit of his notes before getting out of his chair. 

"You're very welcome. I just hope you find the monster who killed Mr. Boddy soon." 

De Tanga nodded his head and left the kitchen. He was about to head out to another room when he bumped right into an out of breath Hallas. 

"Oh so you finally made it back Hallas?" 

"Yes…" 

"So what did you find out about the Salvation Society?" 

Hallas took a few moments to catch his breath before he started to talk. "What I found out was that the Salvation Society is a solely run company that strives to preserve endangered or rare birds in wildlife." 

"So the story checks out?" 

"Yeah only the Salvation Society is run by its only member, Miss Sylphiel Peacock." 


	5. Cluedo S, act 5

Cluedo S

Act Five

By Relm

~*~

De Tanga raised his eyebrow at Hallas. "What do you mean the Salvation Society's only member? You mean to say Miss Peacock runs this 'group' all for herself?" 

"Apparently." 

"Have there ever been any other members in the Salvation Society besides Miss Peacock?" 

"No there hasn't been any other members. The Salvation Society has only existed for only a month." 

"A month?" 

Hallas nodded. 

'Well then I supposed I'm going to need have a little talk with Miss Peacock after I talk with Miss Rose.' "Good work Hallas. Death right now is walking around Boddy Manor checking the rooms, I want you to go find him and help him out." 

"Alright. I'll go look for him now." Hallas nods and proceeds to go look for Death with a slightly confused face. 

'I wouldn't be surprised if he gets himself lost. Anyway now onto other manners. Now where can I find Miss Rose?' De Tanga scratched his head in thought. 'I guess I better just go take a look around.' 

~*~

Death strolled around Boddy Manor trying to see if he could find. He tried looking for any blood trails that could indicate a possible murder location or a place Mr. Boddy had been moved to. But unfortunately Death wasn't getting anywhere. The whole mansion seemed to be spotless. 'This really sucks.' Death sighed and took another corner and walked right past a door to a room. He backtracked to that door when he heard voices coming from that direction. 

_"I don't know how much the guy had!"_ Death heard a young female voice speak. _"I know Mr. Boddy's supposed to have quite a bit, but I don't where the guy had it hidden!" _

From the manner that the woman was talking in the room Death figured that she was talking on some sort of phone. 'Damnit I just wish I knew who this was. Maybe if her voice wasn't so muffled I could figure it out.' 

_"I swear I don't know where it is, I haven't found it yet! No I'm not planning to split with the money without paying you. You have my word don't you? Hey you got me on this job okay I wouldn't be stupid enough to cheat you out of what belongs to you. Especially when you are the one paying me." _ The woman in the room grumbles in annoyance to the person she's talking to on the phone. _"Whatever, I'll call you later if I can find out some info or if I get the money."_

Death heard the woman click the phone off and approach the door. 'Eeep!' He scurries off to hide so that the woman wouldn't see him. Death ends up hiding behind a large plotted plant just as the doors opens. 'Maybe I can get a look at her while she walks out.' 

The door opens and a figure steps out into the hallway heading towards another room only Death couldn't see anything through the leaves of the plant. 'Curses! I guess I'll just have to follow her!' Death gets out from behind the plant just as the woman takes a corner at the end of the hall. 

Being as fast and as quiet as he can Death follows the mystery woman to the best of his ability. Unfortunately he wasn't close enough to see who it was. 

As Death took another corner he just saw the woman go into a room the door closing behind her. 'Ha! Got her now!' Death ran down the hall and stood right in front of the room that the woman was in. It was the ballroom, Death had visited that room prior so he knew what room it was. 

Death decided just to go in the room pretending that he was just looking around so as not to alert the woman that he was following her. With a deep breath Death turns the knob and goes in the room to find it empty. 

'What?! Where the hell is she?! She went in this room! I saw her! How could she get out?!' Death spun himself around the room in confusion. 'That's it I'm going to tear this place room apart till I figure out where she went!' 

~*~

After a little searching around De Tanga finally found where Martina Rose was. She was meditating inside her assigned room with lots of incense burning. 

"Miss Rose?" De Tanga called knocking on her door. 

De Tanga got no answer from the room. 

"Miss Rose are you there?" He knocked again but still he got no answer. 

"Miss Ro-" De Tanga started as Martina flung the door open with a very cross look on her face. 

"What?!" She yelled at him. 

"Ahem. Um Miss Rose I wanted to know if you could answer a few questions for me." 

Martina huffed. "So I was bothered from my meditation for this?! Fine, fine. Come in and hurry up I don't got all day." 

De Tanga complied and stepped into Martina Rose's room. He was surprised to see another portrait of Mr. Boddy hanging over the doorway. 

"Kinda unnerving ain't it? I swear the old guy must have been really vain because he's got paintings of himself all over the mansion in every room." Martina shook her head lighting up a cigarette. 

"Um I guess it's a bit unnerving. May I please ask that you don't smoke? I have a very strong dislike of the smell of cigarette smoke." 

Martina gave De Tanga a very evil look before putting out her cigarette. "Okay so what do you want?" 

"Well first off I wanted to ask you about your real reason for leaving your job here." 

"I told you already I left to pursue a career as a medium." 

"Ah yes I do remember you saying that. But I have information to prove that otherwise. You didn't leave your job, you were fired." 

Martina scowled. "So you had a talk with the little nosey twerp huh? I'll tell you what that little maid isn't as sweet and trustworthy as you think." 

"But you were fired, correct?" 

"Fine yes I was." 

"Then why did you say you left your job back when I was talking with everyone?" 

"Do you think you'd like to admit in front of a whole bunch of people that you were fired because you were bad at your job and because you were stealing?" Martina gave him a cross look. 

"Fair enough. But that's the only thing you lied about?" 

"Yes." 

De Tanga nodded his head in thought. "Okay then can you tell me what you mean about Miss White not being trustworthy?" 

Martina's grin turned slightly mischievous. "Well little Miss White hasn't always been a part-time maid. You see she used to be a struggling actor. She was very good at drama and stage work but because of her age and look most people didn't want her unless she was playing the part of a sweet little innocent girl. When she first came here to Boddy Manor she owed quite a bit of money to her acting school so she used her acting skills to play on Mr. Boddy's soft side so that she could get a job here." 

"Wait a minute, if she owed money then why didn't she just have her father help her out with what she owed? Philionel White is the mayor after all." 

"Apparently Mayor White doesn't approve of people pursuing acting careers so he strictly forbid her to go into acting. But little Amelia went behind his back to go to enroll in that acting school. And since she couldn't have her daddy to help her out she had to go elsewhere and why not go after the richest man in the city?" Martina spoke with such bitter tones. 

"That doesn't mean that she was acting to get a job here." 

"I don't care. I've seen her acting abilities, believe me she's very good. She can lie through her teeth with no problem. I've seen her do it to her dad and Mr. Boddy." 

De Tanga frowned. 'Oh well it's not like I completely trusted Miss White anyway. I can't trust any of the suspects here until I figure out who killed Mr. Boddy.' "So do you think Miss White could have been capable of killing Mr. Boddy?" 

"If she had a reason, then yes I'm sure that she would be capable." 

'Hmm… but what reason would she have anyway? Oh well that's my job to find out. Now what else did I want to talk to Miss Rose about? Oh yes I remember.' "My next question Miss Rose, is why did you snort when Filia Peach was talking?" 

Martina rolled her eyes. "That girl is not related to Mr. Boddy at all, I'm sure of it." 

"Why do you say that?" 

"I used to work here for many years, and I've seen many gold digging cons try and get money out of the old man. In fact it's actually too easy. Mr. Boddy didn't know all of his family too well so all these people could come in and pretend to be his family and he'd believe them." 

"But that doesn't mean that Miss Peach isn't really a relative of Mr. Boddy." 

"Either way the main reason she came was for money which is usually the reason for most people coming here anyway. Of course not like anyone could get much out of Mr. Boddy. That guy was a stingy bastard and kept most of his money very well guarded. I'm guessing that Mr. Green knows that well." 

De Tanga gave her a curious look. "Why do you say that?" 

"Well everyone but Mr. Boddy knew that Mr. Green was leaching money out of Mr. Boddy. Hell I would have done the same if I were in his shoes. Though I think Mr. Boddy was getting suspicious of Mr. Green because he kept questioning his work. Oh course Mr. Green always got annoyed with Mr. Boddy questioning him because Mr. Green knew that Mr. Boddy was starting to realize just why his money was starting to disappear." 

'Well now I have to talk to Mr. Green as well as Miss Peacock and Miss Peach. This just seems to get more and more interesting as things go by.' De Tanga almost grinned at the thought but then stopped himself. 'No this is serious I can't go treating this like a game. I still have to be professional.' "Well thank you for your time Miss Rose, I'll leave you back to what you were doing before." 

Martina just snorted went to light up another cigarette as De Tanga left her room. 

De Tanga looked left and right in the different directions of the halls of Boddy Manor. 'So who am I going to question next?' He mused as he started to walk down the left hallway. 


	6. Cluedo S, act 6

Cluedo S

Act Six

By Relm

~*~

Death sighed in exasperation. He had been in the ballroom for almost an hour now trying to figure out how that woman got out of the room without him seeing. But as hard as he tried, Death was still clueless to how she did it. There was only one door to the room and that was the one that Death entered in. There was no way she could have gotten out through that door. 

Of course there was always the windows, but Death had ruled that out very quickly. For some odd reason all the windows where nailed shut in the ballroom. There was no way that someone could have gotten out through there unless they spent a couple minutes pulling up nails with a hammer. 

"Gah this frustrating!" Death muttered under his breath. He went to double check around some of the furniture and ended up slipping on the floor and landing flat on his back. 

~*~

Hallas was still wondering around the mansion trying to find out where Death was. Currently Hallas was in Mr. Boddy's famous laboratory. 

Normally this large but somewhat dark lab was usually locked under key with only Mr. Boddy himself being able to get in. But since Mr. Boddy's murder, almost every locked room was left unlocked for the investigation. 

Hallas was starting to let his mind get the best of him and was freaking himself out by being in the dark lab alone. He was seeing and hearing things. Hallas would see shadows move and he'd hear voices whispering at him. Of course this was all in his mind and there were no voices or moving shadows. 

'Gotta calm down a bit. I shouldn't get myself so freaked out like this.' Hallas took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a few minutes. 'I'm in this room alone there is no one else here.' 

"@#$$@$^T!^%!^&*#^$(Q%^*#@%&^$%#@^%(*!!!!" 

Hallas jumped and crashed into one of the lab's tables. He very slowly got up glancing around the room suspiciously. He had been startled by someone yelling a long string of curses. Needless to say that spooked him. And he almost jumped again when he heard the same swearing, but then he realized whose voice it was. 

Hallas walked over to a corner of the lab and listened very carefully. What he heard was the faint pain evoked muttering of Officer Death Noir. 

'Now why am I hearing Death? Where is it coming from?' Hallas wondered leaning against the wall. Unknowingly Hallas pushed in a switch, which caused the wall to move. Unfortunately for Hallas the wall that moved was the one that he was leaning against. Therefore he fell flat on his face. 

"Owwwy… Hmm… a secret passage? I didn't know this place had any of those." Hallas mused but then remembered Death's voice and followed the sound of it down the long dark passage. 'Damn I wish I had a flashlight, or even a match.' Hallas miserably thought. If there was one thing he hated the most, it was walking around blindly in a dark place. 

~*~

Death still grumbling about his back got up into a sitting position. 'Now how the hell did I fall down?!' He looked over to the floor and saw that the floor was actually wet. He shook his head and got up just to hear a blood-curling scream. 

Suddenly one of the walls before Death moved to reveal a passage. And from that passage Hallas leaped out screaming in a hysterical manor. 

"AHHHHH!!!! A RAT!!!! A RAT!!!! AHHH!!!! GET IT AWAY!!!!!" Hallas screamed and leaped into Death's arms. 

Death sweatdropped. "Hallas you can let go of me? You scared off the rat." Death said very dryly. 

Hallas was still shrieking for a few moments before he took in what Death said and regained his composure. "Um sorry, Death…" 

"Yeah well whatever… Grrr… you mean there was a secret passage here! AHHHH!!! Here I've been going nuts trying to figure out how she got out of here and this passage was here the whole time right under my nose!" Death grumbled. 

"What woman are you talking about?" 

"Huh? Oh yeah. Well here's what happened. I was looking around the manor when I heard this woman talking on a phone in room. She was talking to someone about Mr. Boddy's money and how she was trying to get her hands on it." 

"Oh really? Did you know who it was?" 

"No I didn't get a chance to see her, nor did I get to hear who it really was." 

"Did she see you?" 

"No I made sure that she didn't see me. But I couldn't get a good look at her and she went down the halls. I followed her to this room but when I got in here she was gone and I couldn't figure out how she managed to escape. Only now I can see how she managed to. Where does that passage lead to?" 

"It's leads to Mr. Boddy's laboratory." 

"Hmm… we should go and see Detective Tealson." 

~*~

De Tanga after talking with Martina Rose went searching around for one of the people he wanted to talk to. He finally found Sylphiel but upon finding her he decided to talk to her later. De Tanga didn't want to disturb Sylphiel while she was having a delightful conversation with Colonel Gourry Mustard. 

So that left De Tanga still searching for one of the other suspects. He found one of them when he went into study. He found Mr. Boddy's accountant, Carbunkle Green, looking through Mr. Boddy's personal papers and information. 

"Ahem." De Tanga cleared his throat rather loudly. 

Carbunkle freezes in a statue like state. He slightly turns his face to look at De Tanga who is standing in the doorway staring at him. "Hello Detective Tealson." 

"Hello Mr. Green. So… what exactly are you doing?" 

"Um… I was just… looking over… these um papers… to find out why some of Mr. Boddy's money has seemed to have gone missing." 

"That's funny. I was told you were the one embezzling money out of Mr. Boddy." 

"What?! Who told you that?" 

"Well that's what I was told by Mr. Boddy's ex-secretary Martina Rose. Should I have a reason to suspect what she says as a lie?" 

"Damn right you do! That woman is a compulsive liar! She'd lie about anything as long as it benefited her. I mean look at what she said when you were talking to everyone! She said that she quit. Now that was a lie. I damned well that she was fired! And she was stealing from Mr. Boddy too!" Carbunkle fumed out but soon mentally kicked himself for his slip of the tongue. 

"So she was stealing from Mr. Boddy… 'too'?" De Tanga put emphases on word 'too'. 

"Alright, alright. I was stealing from him. Well you can't blame me. Mr. Boddy was one stingy bastard. He'd never pay me enough even though he had so much money. Plus he'd bother me all the time about his financial statements. I swear that guy never slept!" 

"Hmm… well I'm not here to investigate any financial crimes, I'm here to solve a murder. Though I have to say I do find all this a bit suspicious with hearing about you stealing money and finding you in Mr. Boddy's study looking through his papers…" 

"No seriously I was just checking Mr. Boddy's papers. Or rather trying to find them." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well normally Mr. Boddy keeps them in this room, but they are missing. And that's weird because they were here right after we found out that Mr. Boddy was killed." 

"So are you saying that someone might have gone in here and stole the papers?" 

"I'm not saying that someone may I have, I'm saying that someone has gone in. They aren't in this room anywhere I checked the whole room. Someone else has definitely been here and took the papers." 

"Hmm… got any ideas who it might have been?" 

"Well… it could have been one of many people. Basically any person in this place. Everyone here is so greedy for money. Like Mr. Boddy's so-called relative Filia Peach." 

"So you don't think she's really related to Mr. Boddy?" 

"No I don't. In fact I know she isn't. I mean you'd have to be stupid to believe she is. It's so obvious that the only reason she's here is because she's trying to get at Mr. Boddy's money. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who came in her and took the papers." 

"Interesting. Tell me Mr. Green who do you think might have killed Mr. Boddy?" 

"I really don't know. Personally even though there are some people here who might not seem likely to have done it but I wouldn't assume so. I think every person here might have been capable of killing Mr. Boddy." 

"Well you might be right about that. Thank you Mr. Green for your time, but I must go now to deal with other matters. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave now." 

"Sure, hope you have good luck on the case." 

De Tanga nodded and both him and Carbunkle went separate ways. 

~*~

Hallas and Death were running around the mansion left and right trying to find where De Tanga was. They asked everyone they saw if they knew where the detective was and one was sure where he was. 

"One of the great things about looking for someone in a place like this, it's so hard because the place is damn big." Death muttered shaking his head. 

"Who are you two looking for?" Carbunkle asked coming up behind them. 

"Hello Mr. Green. Right now we are looking for Detective Tealson, but we can't seem to find him." 

"Well I was just talking to him so he's probably somewhere down that hall." Carbunkle pointed to a hall to their left. 

Both officers thanked Carbunkle and they headed off in search of De Tanga. Moments later they finally caught up with him. 

"Detective Tealson!" Hallas yelled from down the hall. 

De Tanga turned around and headed towards the two. "What's up you two find anything useful?" 

"Yes Detective I think we may have. I'll explain on the way there." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow as he followed Death to the ballroom. 

~*~

"… And then that's when Hallas came through the passage." Death finished explaining the story to De Tanga as the three of them stood in the ballroom. The passage that Hallas had opened was now closed and wasn't visible at all. 

"So you say that this passage leads to the laboratory?" 

"Yes it does." 

"I want to go in the passage. How about we try opening it?" 

The Hallas and Death shrugged and the two of the them went to try to re-open the passage without success. 

"Now how the hell does this work?" 

"Well the one I opened from the laboratory all I did was push a part of the wall." 

"But I guess it must matter which spot you push. So it almost looks like unless you do it by accident like Hallas did, you'd have to know the passage very well to do it. I wonder are there any more passages in the manor…" 


	7. Cluedo S, act 7

Cluedo S

Act Seven

By Relm

~*~

De Tanga, Death and Hallas tried again to re-open the hidden passage in the ballroom but still they could not get it to open. 

"Hallas you said that you opened the passage to here from the laboratory right? Do you think if we went over there that you'd might be able to re-open the passage from over there?" 

"I'm not sure Detective Tealson. It was kinda an accident that I even opened it at all." 

De Tanga frowned slightly. "Well still I'd like to see which wall it is that the passage opens from over in Mr. Boddy's laboratory. So shall we head over there now?" 

Both Death and Hallas nod and the three of them head over to the laboratory. It took them about eleven minutes to get to from the ballroom to the laboratory going through the halls. 

"Hallas, how long did it take you to get to the ballroom from the passage?" 

"No more then five minutes." 

"Hmm… that really cuts the time down. Meaning that woman I was tailing would have been long gone even before I could have made it down here." Death said more to himself then to Hallas and De Tanga. 

"Yes that's right. But that makes me wonder how the woman even knew about the passage in the first place. I'm pretty sure that any secret passages in the manor wouldn't be something that someone could find out easily." 

"So you think that this woman might be the killer then?" 

"Not necessarily. Yes it's quite possible that she could be the killer but we don't know that for sure. Mr. Boddy was a very rich man so that woman could just be after Mr. Boddy's money and that's it. It doesn't mean that she was the one who killed him. But what I've seen many people here could have a motive to kill Mr. Boddy just dealing with his money alone. Anyway Hallas which wall was it that the passage opened up from?" De Tanga asked as they walked into the laboratory. 

"It was this one." Hallas said walking over to the wall that he accidentally opened the passage from. 

"Okay Hallas I want to you to go through everything that happened right before you opened the secret passage." 

"Alright. Well I was walking around the looking to find Death like you told me to and I ended up here in the laboratory. And I was walking around the room looking around. Then all of a sudden I heard a long string of swearing." 

De Tanga looked at Death whom was whistling innocently. De Tanga shook his head. "And then what happened?" 

"I listened hard and I figured out that it was Death who was swearing. I walked towards where I was hearing his voice but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. So I go and lean against this wall and I guess I touched something because the wall moved and revealed the passageway." 

"So wait you leaned against the wall that moved? Did you fall flat on your face?" Death asked Hallas with a raised eyebrow. 

Hallas sweatdropped. "No I didn't." 

"Anyways, do you know which part of the wall you leaned against?" 

"Um not really." 

Both Death and De Tanga shake their heads. 

"It doesn't look like we are going to get into these passages unless we find some sort of a floor plan of the Boddy Manor." 

Hallas nods his head while he leans back on the wall. And like before the wall moves and Hallas again falls flat on his face. "Owwy…" 

"Hallas and his dumb luck." De Tanga mutters under his breath as he and Death help the accident-prone officer back on his feet. "So this is the passage huh? Well let's go and check it out." 

"Do-do we ha-have to?" Hallas stutters peering into the passage that he had gone in an hour or two prior. 

"What's wrong Hallas? Scared?" 

"No. I just don't... want to go in there again, yeah. Um I've already been in there before and it would be pointless for me to go there again. I should be going and doing something else that would be helpful. Okay I'm going to go now." Hallas starts to walk off but De Tanga grabs him by the back of his shirt and pulls him back over. 

"Hallas you are coming with us and that's final." De Tanga spoke in a commanding tone. 

"Yes Detective Tealson." Hallas grumbled miserably. 'Please let there be no rats this time, please…' 

~*~

Amelia hummed as she worked in the kitchen making dinner for everyone in the manor. Ever since everyone had been forced to stay in the Boddy Manor after Mr. Boddy had been killed Amelia had been working double time trying to make meals and keep the manor tidy. Which is a very large job considering that there was so many people in the manor, and the place was so large. That was one of the things Amelia had hated the most when she was working for Mr. Boddy was the fact that she was the only maid working for him. So Amelia never had anyone else to help her out. In some ways she regretted even going in for the interview at the Boddy Manor. When she had gone in for the job she expected to only be working as a part time maid with other maids to keep the manor clean and tidy. But instead she ended up working alone to keep the whole manor clean, the job of more then three maids, acted as Mr. Boddy's butler as well as being the manor's cook. 

It turns out that Mr. Body's cook that work there before Amelia started working at the manor quit because Mr. Boddy drove him/her insane with his nit picking. Either Mr. Boddy was being very fussy about his food, or the cook couldn't cook that well at all. 

Either way Amelia never got the chance to meet the cook, and Mr. Boddy didn't hire anyone else to replace him/her. Once Mr. Boddy found out that Amelia could cook, he had her doing that too. Amelia had blindly agreed to cook in place of the chef thinking that because she would be doing more work that Mr. Boddy would be paying her more. But she was dead wrong. Once Amelia started working as a cook, butler and maid, Amelia was still being paid the same amount of money she was getting when she was just a maid. Mr. Boddy never paid her more for the extra work she did, only the maid work. Amelia would have complained about this, but she really needed the money and Mr. Boddy wasn't really such a bad guy even if he was a bit stingy and a little strange. But of course Amelia could have gone to Mr. Boddy and asked him if she could get paid more but she had seen what had happened to other employees who had asked for a raise. It's true that it's hard to get fired by Mr. Boddy because he wasn't that aware of the things that went on behind his back, but asking for a raise was one easy to get fired. Mr. Boddy being as stingy always fired those who asked him for more money. Needless to say Mr. Boddy had gained many enemies just for that reason. 

Amelia decided that she was better off not asking for anything more and just continued to work hard and being very friendly to Mr. Boddy in hopes that her good work would eventually be rewarded. 

But that hadn't happened and Mr. Boddy was dead and now she was still stuck doing the same job she was doing before only this time she wasn't getting paid for it. It was taking most of Amelia's concentration just to stay chipper and polite. 

"Amelia do you need a hand with anything?" A voice asked from behind Amelia. 

Amelia looked behind her to see Sylphiel Peacock standing by the kitchen table. 

"Oh no Miss Peacock I'm fine." 

"Are you sure? You've been working so hard keeping everything clean and cooking for everyone. And I feel bad if I didn't help out at least once." 

"No really, I'm perfectly fine doing this by myself. I had to do this when I was working here anyway so I'm already used to the workload. But thank you so much for offering." Amelia smiled. 

"I insist. Let me help you. I'm a very good cook. I used to work as one at a few different places before and helping out wouldn't be a problem at all for me. Please let me help you." Sylphiel put a hand on her shoulder. 

"Are you sure? You really want to help me out?" 

"I'd be glad to." 

Amelia beamed with a great big smile. "Thank you so much!" Amelia gushed out all happily. 

Sylphiel smiled herself and started to help out by picking up a knife and chopping some onions. 

~*~

After about ten minutes Death, De Tanga and Hallas made their way into the ballroom from the secret passage. Unlike from when Hallas went through the passage before, De Tanga had a flashlight to see while in the dark passage. And last time Hallas had wished the he had a light to see, now he wished they didn't use a light at all. 

It took them much longer to go through the passage then it had taken Hallas to do initially just for one reason. Before Hallas couldn't see anything in the passage, but with flashlight in hand he could see everything that was in there. Bugs, spiders and rats, there were tones of them in the passage. Hallas kept screaming and wanted to run away and it took all of Death and De Tanga's strength just to drag Hallas through. 

Once out Hallas collapsed to the floor wheezing in fright. "I never want to go in there again!" 

"Geeze you're a real wimp. I'm not too crazy about spiders and bugs but I'm not as bad as you." Death shook his head at his fellow officer. 

Hallas didn't say anything in reply to Death's comment and just continued to mutter under his breath. 

De Tanga would have said something in Hallas' defense but it wasn't just that Hallas was afraid of rats, spiders and bugs, he was afraid of far too many other things. Hallas didn't seem to have a brave bone his body at all. "Oh well get up Hallas we've got other things to do right now." De Tanga said dryly while he and Death helped the shaken officer to his feet. 

Death was going to say something when they heard two very distinct female screams. "Huh? What's going on?!" 

The screaming continues and the three of them follow the source of the sound. They were eventually led to the kitchen. 

The three of them pulled out their guns out of the holsters and readied themselves as they entered the kitchen. What they found there was Amelia White and Sylphiel Peacock screaming at the sight of a very bloody and very mangled dead body sprawled out on the kitchen floor. 

~*~

Hours later the dead body had been removed from the Boddy Manor kitchen and had been sent off to be taken down to the morgue for an autopsy. 

After about twenty minutes De Tanga managed to get the full story from both Amelia and Sylphiel. What had happened was that both Sylphiel and Amelia were cooking the dinner for everyone when Amelia asked Sylphiel to see go check in the back storage freezer to see exactly how much extra meat that was being stored. When Sylphiel opened the freezer door a dead body came crashing out onto the floor. 

The dead body that had been in the storage freezer was a male but that was all that could have been determined. The face was badly gashed up as well as the rest of the body and all of the dead man's clothes where stained with blood and torn. They couldn't identify the body so De Tanga was hoping that the morgue would be able to tell them who the dead man was. There was a chance that body was Mr. Boddy, but if it were Mr. Boddy then it would still be hard to identify how he was killed. The body was so completely mangled that De Tanga didn't have any idea exactly what the cause of the death was. It was obvious that the body had been messed up with various blunt objects right after his death so as to make it hard to identify and to tell what the cause of death was. 

"I can't believe I was in the kitchen for most of the day and there was a dead body in the room too!" Amelia cried out shaking with tears rolling down her cheeks. 

Before De Tanga would have thought that Amelia was genuinely upset by something like this, but after hearing about her acting abilities from Martina, De Tanga wasn't so quick to believe her sincerity. "So you hadn't gone into that freezer at all in the past few days?" 

"That's the strange thing, I had gone into it. Yesterday there hadn't been a dead body in there at all!" 

De Tanga tapped his chin in thought. 'So unless Amelia is lying, then the dead body had been moved into the kitchen just the night before or early this morning. I wonder if there's a secret passage in here too.' De Tanga decided he was better off not mentioning the secret passage till later on. "Well the body has been taken in to the morgue, so we'll soon find out who that man is. So until then all we can do is wait. Are you going to be okay Miss White?" 

"Don't worry about me I'll be okay, I'm just a little bit shaken up that's all." 

De Tanga turned over to Sylphiel. "What about you Miss Peacock, are you going to be alright?" 

Sylphiel didn't answer him for a few moments she just seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. 

"Miss Peacock?" 

"Oh yes I'm sorry. Um yeah I'll be fine." 

"That's good then. Tell me how was the food that you two were preparing?" 

"It's still fine. A little cold, but all we need to do is warm it up." 

"Okay then I want you to do that." 

"What? Eat, after something like this?!" Amelia and Sylphiel stared at him shock. 

"It's not good to skip meals, and besides I want everyone to settle down a bit and gather into a room so that I can ask everyone a few questions." 


	8. Cluedo S, act 8

Cluedo S

Act Eight

By Relm

~*~

Later on everyone gathered in the Boddy Manor's grand dining room. Everyone was seated at the table with their meals on their plates in front of them. It was very quiet in the large room with only the sounds of clanging silverware on the fine china as people ate. But the only the people who were eating were Gourry, Hallas and Death. Everyone else in the room stared around the room suspiciously. Either some were still shocked and unsettled about the dead body that had appeared in kitchen or very few people weren't uneasy about eating the food that was before them. 

De Tanga himself looked around the room suspiciously. Someone in that room had placed that body in the kitchen. He found it quite interesting that barely anyone was eating. 'Well if anyone in this whole room could be able to commit murder then it's possible that Miss Peacock or Miss White could have poisoned the food. Neither of the two woman are eating so they might suspect the other of poisoning the food. That or they are too unnerved about what just happened that they don't have any appetite.' De Tanga thought back to how upset both woman seemed to be when he, Death and Hallas had came onto the scene. 'That's provided neither were acting.' He stared down at the meal that had been placed in front of him. It both looked and smelled appetizing though De Tanga for the life of him couldn't figure out what the dish was. 'Is this poisoned? Would Miss Peacock or Miss White intentionally poison the food? But that would put too much suspicion on either of them. So it wouldn't be such a good idea to do that. But then whose to say that someone else could have poisoned the food during all the commotion concerning the mystery dead body that appeared in the kitchen.' 

De Tanga mentally sighed and saw that everyone appeared to be watching Gourry, Hallas and Death very closely. The thought hadn't occurred to either of the three that the food that they were consuming could in fact be poisoned. But it really didn't seem to matter because the three of them seemed to be fine. Once everyone else had noticed this they too started to eat. De Tanga mused on this occurrence. 'So I guess this is how everyone knew the food not to poisonous once everyone was restricted to stay in the Boddy Manor. They just waited until Colonel Mustard ate and waited to see if anything happened to him. If nothing does, it's safe to eat. If something does then it's not safe.' 

Once everyone had gotten through their meals De Tanga decided to start his little group discussion. "If I may have your attention everyone, there are a few things I'd like to discuss." De Tanga cleared his throat before continuing. "Now I know all of you are curious to identity of the body that was discovered in the manor kitchen. Of course once I find out who it was I will let you all know. Though I bet I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of you might think that body was in fact Mr. Boddy. But I must warn you all, it might not be Mr. Boddy. And if it isn't, then chances are we might have a double murder on our hands here. And I'm also going to warn all of you that Mr. Boddy and person recently discovered might not have been killed by the same person. So not only might we have two murders here, but maybe even more then one murderer." 

Some people in the room gasped while others seemed to be deep in thought. De Tanga noted that some of them didn't seem to be surprised. 'Well I guess I wasn't the only one who had come to that conclusion.' "Now the next thing I wanted to talk to you all about was concerning the structure of this manor. It has come to my attention that there are one or more secret passages in the manor that lead from one room to another. I was wonder if any of you where those passages might be?" De Tanga looked around to the group. Not one person said anything and some even seemed surprised about what De Tanga said. 

"There's secret passages in here? Mr. Boddy never said anything about there being any in the manor before." Xellos mused 

"So you weren't told anything about it?" 

"No I wasn't. But then my old friend was very secretive." 

"That's assuming that he even knew about them himself." 

De Tanga gave Carbunkle a strange look. "What do you mean by that Mr. Green?" 

"Well Mr. Boddy inherited this manor from his mother. It was built many years ago and unless you have the original flooring plans then of course you wouldn't know of any secret passages that are in this manor. It's quite possibly that either Mr. Boddy wasn't told of the passages or he wasn't given the flooring plans. So maybe he didn't know." 

"True. But does any of you know?" 

Everyone shook their heads. It was exactly what De Tanga had been expecting. He didn't expect someone to be able to tell him about the passages. He just asked so that he could see everyone's reactions. "Tell me Mr. Green is there anyway that I could get my hands on the original floor plans to the Boddy Manor?" 

Carbunkle thought for a few moments. "I'm not sure. You have to check around with the city records. But I figure if they are still around, then they are in the manor somewhere. If the Boddy family was anything like Mr. Boddy then they wouldn't have trusted anyone with information such as that. So they would have stored in the manor rather then trust it with the city." 

"I see." De Tanga made a mental note to get Hallas or Death to check out the city records. 

~*~

"Wow that food was good! Those two girls are good cooks!" Hallas grinned as him Death and De Tanga left the dining room. They had spent in total about five hours at the Boddy Manor. 

"Yes it was good I guess." De Tanga said while looking over one of his papers. 

"Were you feeling sick Detective De Tanga? You barely touched your food the whole time." 

"I don't usually eat much anyway Death. Anyway, I want you two to keep on an eye on things while I'm gone." 

"Where are you going?" 

"I'm just going to go outside for a few moments to go and call the station. I have to find what's going to happen once we go home for tonight. I wont be too long." 

"Okay Detective." 

De Tanga walked over to the large heavy doors of the main entrance of the Boddy Manor. They squeaked rather loudly as he opened the door. 

Outside the manor the sky was black the air was cold and frigid and it was very quiet outside. The only thing that De Tanga could hear was the faint sound of the wind breezing through the branch's of the trees that were on the Boddy Manor. Being as secluded as Mr. Boddy's home was, it was much too far away from the sounds of the city. Even though there were roads that did go by the manor, they weren't used that often. Most of the time the roads were only used when someone was planning on visiting Mr. Boddy. 

De Tanga shivered in the cold autumn air as he pulled out his cell phone to phone up the station. Once the number was dialed De Tanga waited for someone to pick up. 

_"Hello, Fendelli City Police Department, how may I help you?"_ A young woman answered the phone. De Tanga recognized the voice, it was a girl named Amber. 

"Hi Amber, it's Detective De Tanga Tealson. I was wondering if you could direct my call to the Chief, I need to ask him something concerning my current case." 

_"Okay Detective Tealson, just wait a moment please."_

A few moments later the police chief picked up on the line. 

_"Hello Tealson, any news on the Boddy case?"_

"Well that's what I'm calling about. I need to know what you are planning to do when Death, Hallas and I leave for the night." 

_"I was planning on assigning a few officers to watch over the manor to make sure that the person who killed Mr. Boddy wouldn't kill anyone else."_

"That's a good idea Chief. I'll make sure to debrief the officers when they get here." 

_"Um Tealson…"_

"Yes Chief?" 

_"You wont be needing to debrief anyone."_

"Oh so the officers already know of the case?" 

_"No, there wont be any other officers coming by the manor."_

"But you said that you were going to have some officers watch over the manor while the three of us leave for the night." 

_"You three are the officers that I'm assigning to watch over the manor tonight."_

"What?" 

_"It would be too suspicious to send other officers over there considering that we made sure that Sergeant Gray stayed there along with all the other suspects. If we send any other people over there to relieve you three then Gray will realize that we suspect him as a possible suspect. And if he is the killer then he might do something rash if he found out we suspected him. So that's why the three of you have to stay there."_

"For how long? Just for the night?" 

_"Until the case is solved."_

"Until the case is solved?!?! But that could be weeks from now! And none of us brought any clothes with us!" 

_"Yes I'm aware of that Tealson. That's why I want you guys to go to your homes at different times and get the stuff you'll need for a couple of days. But you have to make sure that at least one of you three is at the manor at all times."_

"But Chief is this really necessary?" 

_"It is Tealson. Now I want you to do what I say and report back with me if you have any news. Speaking of news, have you discovered anything useful yet?"_

"A few things, but nothing I can prove yet." 

_"Who's your most likely suspect?"_

"At first I suspected someone more then the others. But as the night went I realized that he wasn't the most likely suspect. The more time I spend here the more I see that anyone one of these people could easily have been the one that killed Mr. Boddy. But I haven't talked to everyone personally yet, so I'll have to see. So as it is right now I can't say anything for use yet Chief." 

_"Okay Tealson. Call me if you get anything else."_

"Sure Chief. I'll talk to you later." 

_"Goodnight Tealson."_

"Goodnight Chief." 

De Tanga hung up his phone and grumbled in discontent. As nice as the Boddy Manor was he wasn't all too pleased about having to spend not only the night there, but the next couple or days or weeks there. 'Gives me more incentive to solve the case quicker.' De Tanga darkly chuckled as he went back into the manor. 

He walked over to where Death and Hallas were talking. 

"Oh hi Detective Tealson! So what's the news from the Chief?" 

"We have to stay at the manor until we get this case solved." 

Both officers gasped. 

"You mean we have to stay HERE? But there's a murderer here! We could get killed in our sleep." Hallas said with wide eyes. 

"Yes I know Hallas but it's what the Chief has ordered us to do. And we have to go to our homes and grab the stuff we're going to need for the next little while and come back here. But there has to be someone in the manor at all times. So I'm going to suggest that you two go first and I want you two to take one car and go together. I don't want Hallas getting himself lost on the road." De Tanga handed Death a piece of paper with Hallas' address while Hallas gave De Tanga a sour look. 

"Is that really necessary?" 

"With your directional sense, unfortunately it is. I'll see to our rooms while you guys are gone. So you two better go now and get back soon." 

"Alright Detective Tealson." Death nodded at De Tanga as he left with Hallas. 

De Tanga sighed. 'Oh well I'd better go and find Miss White about getting some rooms.' 

~*~

Amelia was in the kitchen washing dishes from the dinner. She sighed in discontent. Amelia wasn't too pleased about having to go back into the very same room that a dead body was discovered in nor was she happy about having to wash all the dishes. There was a mountain high pile of dishes that needed to be washed and there was only Amelia to do them. It was one of things that Amelia got very sick of, washing dishes. Since she always has so much to wash being the only maid her hands were always sore wrinkly from all the hot water. She had pleaded to Mr. Boddy in the past to get a dishwasher because they're so handy and useful but Mr. Boddy never wanted to buy one. Being as stingy as he was never wanted to spend his money on extra non-essential things like dishwashers, television sets, or computers. So that left Amelia having to suffer with what she had to work with. 

Amelia frowned as she picked up another plate with food that was literally caked onto it. 

"Miss White?" A voice said from behind her. 

Amelia screamed, involuntarily sending the plate flying through the air almost hitting the person who was behind her. 

De Tanga almost didn't dodge the airborne plate in time as it crashed into the wall. 'Whoa! I really gotta stop startling her like that! It's hazardous to my health.' De Tanga sweatdropped. 

"Oh Detective Tealson! I'm sooo sorry! I didn't mean to almost hit you with that plate!" 

"No, it's alright I'm perfectly fine. But it's I that should apologize to you. This is the second time I've startled you today." 

"I'm really sorry. I guess I'm just a bit jumpy right now." 

"Well you've got a good right to be." 

"Yeah I guess you are right. So what is it that you want Detective?" 

"I need to know if there is three spare rooms that myself and officers Hallas Beige and Death Noir can use for the time being." 

"So does that mean that the three of you will be staying with us as well?" 

"It seems so." 

"Alright, well this mansion is quite large as you know so I know for a fact that there are many spare guest rooms right now. So I can get three of them made up for you all." 

"Okay I only have one request, I want all three rooms near each other." 

"That I believe I can do. Will you come with me?" 

~*~

A little while later Amelia showed De Tanga to the room that he was going to sleeping in for the next couple of days or weeks. Like all the other guest rooms, it was designed differently from each other but thing remained constant as in every room of the Boddy Manor. Above the doorway of the room overlooking the bed hung another portrait of the late master of the manor, Mr. Boddy. The expression in the picture was like the others in the sense that Mr. Boddy appeared to be thinking but otherwise it was a very expressionless portrait. 

De Tanga unnerved about the thought of having this portrait staring at him while he sleeping decided that he to take the portrait off the wall and put it someplace else. But when De Tanga tried he found out much to his discontent that painting had in fact been nailed to the wall very securely. He realized that unless he wanted to spend like an hour trying to pry off those nails then he was going to have to deal with the dead Mr. Boddy hanging over the doorway staring at him. So his solution was to throw a cloth over the painting. 

'I have a feeling this is going to be a very long night…' 


	9. Cluedo S, act 9

Cluedo S

Act Nine

By Relm

~*~

De Tanga made sure to check out the other two rooms that Hallas and Death were going to be using for the time being. While De Tanga's room was done completely in shades of brown the other two rooms where done in shades of blue and green. But like De Tanga's room, both the rooms had a portrait of Mr. Boddy overlooking the bed. 

'Mr. Boddy was one creepy man…' De Tanga involuntarily shuddered as he felt the painting's eyes on him. Basically De Tanga was doing the same thing that he did when he went into his room. He was checking around to make sure that there weren't any nasty surprises hidden in the rooms. But like what he found in his room, the other two rooms seemed to be perfectly fine. There didn't seem to be anything strange about the rooms. 

Deciding that all three of the rooms were okay, De Tanga left the rooms making sure that all three where locked. 'Don't want someone coming in while I'm not here.' 

De Tanga made his way down to the main entrance of the manor to wait for Death and Hallas to return. The thought had occurred he could question a few more of the suspects in the manor before Death and Hallas got back, but he decided against that. He wasn't sure where anyone of them were or what they were doing and he didn't want to try while Death and Hallas could come back. If they came back while he was somewhere in the manor he wouldn't know that they were back until they found him and that could take a while. And De Tanga wanted to get home and get his stuff as soon as possible. 

So while De Tanga was waiting he reviewing over his case notes. He still needed to talk to Sylphiel, Gourry, Zangulus, Lina, Filia, Zelgadis and Xellos. De Tanga had a feeling by the time he finished talking to all ten suspects that he was going to find them all to be more likely to have killed Mr. Boddy. 'It's just a matter of figuring out everyone's possible motives. Though I can already guess a few of them.' De Tanga thought while looking through his case file. 

'Miss Rose may have killed Mr. Boddy because she could still hold a grudge. Mr. Green could have done it because he wanted to cover up his embezzlement and illegal affairs. Miss Peach may have killed Mr. Boddy to get her hands on his money through her claims to be related to him. Or in some other fashion. Then there's Miss White, who may have also killed for money. Mr. Brunette could have done it to hide his fraud with all the counterfeit paintings and artwork that he had sold Mr. Boddy. The only reason I can think of for Miss Peacock is that she wanted to get her hands on Mr. Boddy's estate. And Professor Plum may have just wanted to get money out of Mr. Boddy, much many others. But as for Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard and Sergeant Gray I'm not so sure. Perhaps Miss Scarlet wanted money too, but I can't think of any possible reasons for Colonel Mustard and Sergeant Gray.' 

Just then De Tanga was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of the main door opening. The door opened and inside stepped Hallas and Death whom both seemed to be very wet. 

"What happened to you two?" De Tanga asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Well when we first got on to the road, there were only a few clouds in the sky. But by the time we got back into the city, there was a complete cloud cover and it started to pour down on us. It turned into a real harsh storm." Death said while ringing out some of the water from his clothes. 

"Yeah and we both got soaked just from going from the car to our homes." 

"Perhaps it would be a good idea for you both to take a bath and get into some dry clothes." Amelia said coming up from one of the hallways. 

"How many bathrooms do you have in this place Miss White?" 

"Quite a few detective. So shall I start you two both a bath?" Amelia offered. 

"I think that would be a good idea. But first I want the two of them to see their rooms and put their stuff away. So how about you start up the baths and they'll meet you once they are finished?" De Tanga suggested Amelia. 

"Okay Detective Tealson." Amelia nodded and walked off to get things started. 

"Come with me, and I'll show you guys where you are going to be sleeping tonight." 

~*~

Moments later De Tanga showed both Death and Hallas to their rooms. Death got the room done in blue while Hallas got the other one. 

"Here are your keys." De Tanga said while handing both the detectives their room keys. "Now I want you two to make sure that you hold onto these keys and make sure that you lock your rooms when you are not there I don't want anyone to get in your rooms. And especially when you are sleeping. Make sure your rooms are locked at all times. Only have it unlocked when you are in the room and awake. There have already been two murders in this manor and I don't want there to be any more. Do you two both understand?" 

Both the officers deftly nodded. 

"If you two both excuse me, I think it's about time I get home and get my stuff. I'll see you both later." 

De Tanga parted ways with the two younger officers and headed down to the main entrance. When he opened the door he was assaulted by the sudden gust of wind from outside. It was much colder out then it had been when De Tanga had last been outside. The rain literally poured down in buckets. 'Amazing on how quickly the weather can change…' 

De Tanga braced himself before making a mad dash to his assigned unmarked police car. Once inside the car he started up the engine and headed off towards home. 

Looking at his watch, De Tanga noted what time it was. It had been about 3 pm when De Tanga, Hallas and Death had arrived at the Boddy Manor. Now it was 10:07 pm. De Tanga grimaced at the time. 'I should came home more then four hours ago…' He sighed and was about to use his cell phone when he saw that his cell phone was low in battery power. 'Great… well I'll have to get the charger when I get home.' De Tanga sighed and put his phone back in his jacket. 

~*~

It was quite a long drive before De Tanga finally pulled up to his driveway. By now the rainstorm had died down a little bit and it wasn't raining as hard. There was still the occasional flash of lighting followed by a crash of thunder. 

De Tanga parked the car in his driveway and sprinted up to his front door. He fished out his keys and opened the door. 

His home was dark, there didn't seem to be a single light on in the place at all. And everything was silent too. De Tanga tried to be as quiet as he possibly could as he stepped into his hallway. 

All of a sudden De Tanga got the feeling of being watched and he turned around to have the blade of a very large sword right at his neck. 

"Hello dear." De Tanga said very nervously. 

The sword was lowered from De Tanga's neck and the figure in front of him turned on the light in the hallway. De Tanga's wife glared at him with very evil eyes. "And where have _you_ been?!" She demanded glaring daggers at him. 

"I can explain-" 

"Then do." She said in a deadly voice. 

"Okay well, I was assigned to work on a case at the Boddy Manor. Mr. Boddy was murdered a few days ago and well I was there investigating all day and now I have to stay there for the next couple of days until the case is solved." De Tanga avoided eye contact with his wife. He knew that when she got angry she can be one very dangerous person. 

"I know, the Chief of Police called me about the case right after you left for the manor in the afternoon." 

De Tanga looked up meeting her cold purple eyes in confusion. "Then why are you-" 

"Angry? Because you didn't have the consideration to call home and _tell_ me that you weren't going to be home, and that I'd be eating _alone_. So tell me _De Tanga_, why didn't call me?!" If her eyes weren't narrowed enough they narrowed further at De Tanga. 

"My cell phone died…?" De Tanga said with a sheepish smile rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Oh really? Then why is that you were able to call the chief on your cell phone? And what, was there no phones at the manor?" 

"Alright Luna I'm sorry. I forgot to call. I was so busy with the case that I didn't even think of what I should have done. I'm really, really sorry! I was seriously going to call you on the way home, but my cell phone did die on me. Please forgive me." De Tanga lowered his head in shame. 

Luna grinned on how worried and ashamed De Tanga was. She loved how she could have that effect on him. She wasn't really angry that he didn't call. She knew that he was going to be busy wasn't going to be home. Luna just liked making him squirm. "Alright you are forgiven. Now tell me, how the case is going? Have you narrowed down your suspect list?" 

"I wish, I haven't been able take one suspect off the list. And I've just been finding out more information to cast more suspicion on the suspects. And what's even worse, there's been another murder." De Tanga said while heading over to their bedroom to go start packing his clothes and stuff. 

"Really? Who was killed?" 

"We don't know. The body was discovered in the kitchen. It was in the storage freezer. And the body was so messed up that he couldn't be identified. In fact there's a possibility that that body could be Mr. Boddy." 

"What do you mean, could be Mr. Boddy?" 

"Well when I got to the manor, Mr. Boddy's body was missing. Someone had moved his body after he had been murdered." 

"And that someone probably was the murderer." 

"Yup." 

"Geeze, sounds like you've got one interesting case ahead of you. But what happens if that new dead guy isn't Mr. Boddy? Who could it be? And why was he killed too?" 

"Those are the same questions that have been going through my head for the past few hours. But then there's also the chance that this new guy and Mr. Boddy were killed by two different murderers." De Tanga pulled up his suitcase and started to pack it. 

"Oh man and you have to stay there until the case is solved? Well then maybe you should take this along with you." Luna went over to her dresser and pulled out a large dagger and handed to De Tanga. 

"And what's this for?" 

"Good luck, and for something to put under your pillow when you go to bed." 

De Tanga gave her a funny look. "Um… okay if you say so." De Tanga took the dagger and packed into his suitcase. "Well I think I've got everything packed. So I've got to head out now." De Tanga picked up his suitcase and left the room with Luna following behind. 

"Oh you mean you can't stay for a little while?" 

"I don't think it would be a good idea to leave the two young ones alone in charge of the manor too long." 

"Okay. Well don't forget to call me." Luna glared at De Tanga. 

"I wont. This time. Bye Luna." De Tanga leaned in to give her a kiss. 

"Bye De Tanga." 

~*~

Death glared at the cards he had in his hands. Him and Hallas were playing a game of poker in his room. Both of them had already finished their baths and were in clean and dry clothes. Death had had his bath in one of the bathrooms on the third floor, while Hallas had been in the one on the second floor. Both of them had been impressed with the baths but there hadn't been one thing that they hadn't been impressed with in the whole manor. 

"So when do you think Detective Tealson is going to be back?" 

"I don't know, it is a long drive. So what do you got?" 

"Straight flush." 

"Damn." 

~*~

Sylphiel sighed as she stared out one of the manor windows. The storm was picked up again and it was pouring down very hard. She was thinking very hard of everything that had been happening the past few days. Sylphiel hated having to be stuck in the manor having to worry about what was going to happen to her. 

"Hi Sylphiel!" A voice spoke from behind her. 

"AHHHHH!!!" Sylphiel screamed and jumped. She calmed down once she realized who it was. "Oh I'm sorry Gourry." 

"No I should be apologizing. I didn't mean to startle you." Gourry said sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. 

"I guess I'm just a little jumpy right now." 

"Yeah I guess that's not surprising it must have been pretty scary finding a dead guy in the kitchen." 

"I had no idea when I came to this manor to talk about birds that I would end up right in the middle of a murder investigation." Sylphiel sighed looking down adjusting her glasses a little bit. 

"Oh you came here to talk about birds?" 

"Yes, what reason did you think I came here to talk to Mr. Boddy for?" 

"I thought… oh I forgot." Gourry smiled a goofy smile. 

Sylphiel chuckled. "You forget a lot of things don't you Gourry?" 

"Yeah I do… I even forgot the reason why I came here in the first place. Which was a very good reason too." 

"Oh really? You mean you remember now?" 

"Hey I do! I do remember the reason now! Bye Sylphiel, I've got to go tell the detective right now!" Gourry rushed off leaving Sylphiel alone. 

As Gourry sprinted down the halls he realized that he was lost. "Now where am I?" Gourry asked out loud when all of sudden all the lights went out. 

~*~

De Tanga pulled up back into the front of the manor. When he got out of the car he noticed something very odd. All the lights in the manor were all off. He dashed over to the main doors and was greeted by the others. 

"Detective Tealson you're back!" 

"What happened here?" 

"All the power went out. Must have been from the storm." Carbunkle said handing De Tanga a candlestick with a lit candle in it. 

"Is there a back up generator for the manor?" 

"Yes there is. Sergeant Gray went out to try to get it working." As Amelia spoke the lights went back on. 

"Well looks like he got the power back up." 

A few moments later Zelgadis came back totally soaked from the storm. "Well the back up works, though it's an old generator so I don't know how long it will last. Hopefully it wont give up before the main power comes back on." 

"Hopefully it wont. Everyone is okay though, right?" De Tanga asked looking around to everyone around him. That's when he noticed something wrong. "Where's Colonel Mustard?" 


	10. Cluedo S, act 10

Cluedo S

Act Ten

By Relm

~*~

Everyone looked around in shock. Till now none of them had realized that the forgetful Colonel Gourry Mustard was missing. 

'Great, I'm not even gone for more then three hours and something like this happens.' De Tanga thought while shaking his head in annoyance. "Who was the one who saw Colonel Mustard?" 

"I think I was." Sylphiel spoke up in a rather timid voice. 

"Okay Miss Peacock I want you to go over everything that happened when you last saw him." De Tanga said while motioning for her to sit down. 

Sylphiel sat and everyone else gathered around the timid birdwatcher to hear what she had to say. She cleared her throat before starting. "Well I was in one of the rooms on the eastern side of the manor watching the storm through the window when Gourry came into the room. He said hello to me, but unfortunately I was too absorbed in my thoughts so I didn't notice him and he startled me. He apologized and he and I were talking a little bit." 

"About what?" 

"Oh I don't remember… though we did get on the topic of why we came the manor in the first place." 

"Yes and Colonel Mustard couldn't remember the reason." 

"Before he didn't remember, but when I was talking to him he realized that he did in fact remember. So he said bye and rushed off to go find you and tell you what he remembered." 

"And which direction did he head?" 

"Well that's the strange part, he went east even though you and the other two detectives would have been more towards the center of the manor. So really he went east when he should have gone west." 

Everyone sweatdropped. No one was really surprised that Gourry had gone in the wrong direction. 

"And then what happened next Miss Peacock?" De Tanga prompted after clearing his throat. 

"Well I sat there while thinking again about some things. And then all of a sudden all the lights went out." 

"And how long where you thinking for?" 

"I'm not sure, a couple minutes I guess? I was kinda lost in my thoughts so I'm not really sure how much time had passed." 

De Tanga frowned slightly. "And none of you else saw him before the power went out besides Miss Peacock?" 

Everyone shook their heads. 

"Well does anyone have idea where he might be?" 

"You kidding me, that guy's probably wandering around the manor lost somewhere." Martina said with a snort. 

"Maybe, but I think that it might be a good idea to go and see if we can find him. Because he's not here and we haven't even heard anything from him then something might have happened to him when the lights went out. Like he might have tripped and hit his head or something." 

"So are you saying that we should go and look for him right now?" 

"Well first I want to call this in and let the chief know about the power outage and the missing colonel. Can someone tell me where the closest phone is?" De Tanga asked the group. 

"It's over this way." Amelia motioned for De Tanga to follow her. Amelia leaded him to a room not to far away from the main entrance way. 

De Tanga picked up the phone with intentions of dial up the police station when he noticed that there was no dial tone. 

"Miss White is there something wrong with this phone?" 

"No there shouldn't be. Why is there something wrong?" 

"There isn't any dial tone." De Tanga said handing her the phone. 

Amelia frowned and tried hanging up but still the phone remained without a dial tone. "Well maybe it's just this phone." 

The two of them went to a different room and tried one of the other phones but still the same thing, not one phone they tried worked. 

They both went back to where they left the others. 

"Well Detective Tealson, did you get through to the chief?" Hallas asked as the two came back into the hall. 

"Actually I didn't. None of the phones seem to be working. The telephones might not be working because of the storm. Like maybe a power line got knocked down by a fallen tree or something. In any case I can't use the phones here and my cell phone's battery is low so I can't even use mine. Hallas can I borrow your cell phone?" 

"Mine? Sure." Hallas reached into his pocket and realized his phone wasn't there. He tried all of his other pockets, but still no phone. "Um I'm not sure but I think I lost it…" 

Everyone sweatdropped. 

"Well then I guess we'll just have to look around for yours later on. Death do you have a phone on you?" 

Death frowned slightly. "Yeah I do have a cell phone but I don't have it on me. I left it in my room when I was unpacking. Just wait a minute I'll go get it." 

Death dashed up the stairs while everyone waited. Moments later he came back with a confused look on his face. 

"So Death did you get your phone?" 

"No I couldn't find it. I'm sure I left it on the little drawer next to the bed but when I looked it wasn't there." 

"Was your room locked?" 

"Yes it was." 

De Tanga tapped his chin in thought. 'Well isn't this a bit frustrating.' "Well does anyone else have a cell phone I could use?" 

Everyone collectively shook their heads. 

"Okay well then I'll just call later on. For now though I think we should go and look for Colonel Mustard. So let's separate into groups." 

~*~

De Tanga, Hallas and Death walked around the empty hallways of the Boddy Manor in search of Colonel Mustard. 

"How come the three of us are in one group together? Wouldn't it have been a better idea for us to be in different groups to keep an eye on everyone?" Death asked De Tanga whom was deep in thought. 

"I know but I don't trust any of them right now." De Tanga spoke in a very dark and serious tone. 

"What do you mean Detective Tealson?" 

"I don't think all of this was a coincidence." 

"Coincidence? Like what?" 

"The power going out, Colonel Mustard's disappearance, the phone lines being dead, Death's cell phone going missing… It all seems a little too convenient if you ask me. I think someone staged all this because they didn't want Colonel Mustard to tell us that information." 

"Then you're saying that someone might have gone into my room and took my cell phone?" 

"Yes I'm pretty sure that someone did." 

"But that means that they would have a key to my room!" Death exclaimed angrily. 

"Well this was Mr. Boddy's home, who's to say that he didn't have sets of keys for each room? But I wonder who else would have access to the manor keys besides Miss White. I'll have to talk to her about that later. But there is one thing that strikes me as odd is that when I asked if anyone had a cell phone no one said that they did. Though in this day and age everyone has a cell phone whether they need one or not. And I know from that incident today that you told me about with the mysterious woman that someone definitely has a cell phone here. Why would that person lie?" 

"Maybe because she was the one who set this all up?" 

"Perhaps." 

"Wait a minute, if someone took Death's phone then they probably took my phone too!" Hallas exclaimed. 

"Nah, I doubt that Hallas. Knowing you, you probably did loose your phone." 

Hallas didn't say anything he just scowled. 

~*~

About roughly twenty minutes later everyone met back in the main hall of the manor near the front door. But Colonel Gourry Mustard wasn't among the group at all. 

"None of you found him?" 

Everyone shook their heads. 

"Perhaps maybe he's in his room. Miss White can you show me where his room is?" De Tanga asked and Amelia led. 

Everyone came with Amelia and De Tanga gathering around Gourry's bedroom door. De Tanga knocked a few times but got no answer. He was about to say something when he noticed the door wasn't locked. De Tanga gave Death and Hallas a stern look and the three of them pulled out their guns and entered the room cautiously. Everyone else followed quietly behind them. 

Death flicked on the light switch and Gourry was nowhere to been seen in the room at all. 

"Well think it would be a good idea to give up for the night and get some sleep. It's late anyway and maybe we'll find him in the morning." De Tanga instructed everyone to go back to their rooms. 

When everyone was gone except for De Tanga, Death and Hallas, Death turned to De Tanga with a confused look on his face. "Detective Tealson is that really a good idea to go to sleep when a guy is missing?" 

"Don't worry, I'm going to continue searching. I don't really need much sleep and I think we should take turns taking watch. If someone can easily get into our rooms it wouldn't be a good idea for us all to go to sleep when someone could get in our rooms and kill us in our sleep. So you and Hallas decide your order and I'll be back in a little while." De Tanga ordered Death before going to continue to search the Boddy Manor. 

~*~

De Tanga decided that Gourry could in fact be in one of the secret passageways in the manor. So he went down to Mr. Boddy's laboratory to see if he could reopen the passage that Hallas had discovered earlier that day. Or rather earlier yesterday. By now it was well after 1 am. 

Luckily for De Tanga he had a very good memory so he was able to find the spot that Hallas had pushed before to trigger the open mechanism of the secret door. 

Like before the passage was dark only illuminated by the faint light from laboratory. And like what happened last time the door immediately swung back closing on De Tanga making the room completely dark and devoid of light. De Tanga pulled out his flashlight and shone it around the passage. Besides the normal little vermin that inhabits the passageway there wasn't any other living thing in the underground tunnel. 'Of course Colonel Mustard could just be in another passageway that's provided that another one does exist in the manor. Well I guess I'd better get back and check around in some other areas.' De Tanga mused while heading over to the end of the passageway where it led into the manor's ballroom. But when De Tanga got to the end he noticed that the passage wouldn't open. 'Damnit it looks like it's stuck! I guess I'm going to have to head back to the other side and go out through the laboratory.' 

He went back to the other side and tried to open the passage there. But he had the same problem. It wouldn't budge. 

'What's going on here?! I can't get out! I'm trapped!' 


	11. Cluedo S, act 11

Cluedo S

Act Eleven

By Relm

~*~

Death and Hallas had decided that instead of them sleeping in two different rooms, that we were going to share one instead. Hallas had moved everything into Death's room and was currently sleeping in Death's bed. Since Hallas had been extremely sleepy anyway they figured that it would be best if Death took first watch. 

Death sat on a chair that was in front of the foot of the bed directed towards the bedroom door. He just sat there thinking very hard about the case. 

A part of him was furious about someone taking his cell phone, while another part of him wondered if he had just left it somewhere else and didn't remember about it. But of course Death did do a throughout searching job once Hallas had fallen asleep. At first during his search Death tried to be as quiet as he could possibly be, until he realized that no matter how much noise he made, Hallas wasn't likely to wake up. He was dead asleep and snoring very loudly. 

Though Death had checked everywhere very carefully, he still hadn't found his missing cell phone. It was very frustrating to him so he sat in his chair sulking. 

A lot of time passed by and Death didn't even realize how many hours had gone by. The thought hadn't even occurred to him that De Tanga should have been back a long time ago. It wasn't till he checked his watch did he realize how much time had gone by. 

"Hallas wake up!" Death said nudging Hallas on the shoulder. 

Hallas just mumbled in his sleepy state. 

Death rolled his eyes and stole Hallas' sheets from him. Hallas grumbled and rolled up into a tight ball, but still didn't wake up. 

"WAKE UP!" Death screamed in his ear. 

That got Hallas up with a start. "WHA?!" 

"It's time for your watch Hallas." 

Hallas blinked in confusion having not processed Death's words completely. "Oh." 

"So it's my turn to sleep. Make sure you don't fall asleep. Detective Tealson should be back soon since he's been gone for such a long time. So let him know that we're going to be in here okay Hallas?" 

Though Hallas was standing and seemed to be awake, his mind was still asleep. 

"Hallas?!" 

"Yes, okay, okay…" Hallas mumbled as he sat himself down on the chair while Death went to sleep in the bed. 

'Gotta stay awake…' Hallas mentally told himself as his head started to droop and his eyelids started to feel heavy. Within seconds Hallas was asleep in his chair. 

~*~

De Tanga cursed as he sat down in his dark tunnel prison. He had been stuck there for quite some time now and was getting very anxious. He would have thought by now Death and Hallas might have realized that there was something wrong because he hadn't returned yet, but still no one seemed to know he was there. 

De Tanga had no doubt in his mind that someone had purposely trapped him in the secret passage. It seemed to make too much sense with everything that had happened tonight. 

'They really must be scared about what Colonel Mustard knows.' De Tanga mused as he sat there on the cold stone/dirt floor. He had earlier fished through his coat to see if he had anything on him that could help him. But all that he had was his cell phone, hi gun, his brief case full of all the case information and the knife that Luna had forced him to pack. He had decided to keep it on him once he got into his car for the ride back to the manor. But there was very little use for any of the items in this situation. True the cell phone would be helpful if the battery hadn't been dead, but the knife really had no practical use. Unless he knew of a way to trigger the passage opening mechanism from in side using the knife then it might be helpful. Only De Tanga had already tried that and he had been fruitless in his labors. And then there was his gun. He had already tried fire off a few rounds but realized that was a bad idea once the bullets started deflecting off the walls. And even though the gun made all that noise no one seemed to hear it. But that could be because he was underground and all the rooms in the manor are soundproof. So at this point he had given up. He still had a little ray of hope that Death and Hallas would actually find him and get him out, but even that was fading out. 

'Oh well, I guess it's back to trying the damn passageway door again. Maybe I'll get lucky this time.' 

~*~

Outside De Tanga's room a person wearing all black slipped a key into the door lock. With a few clicks the door was unlocked and opened. The unknown person quietly crept around the detective's room search through his stuff. The intruder grunted in frustration. The case file, which the black clad person had been looking for, wasn't among De Tanga's stuff. 

'Damnit! He must have it on him…' The intruder thought while shaking their head while putting everything back in its place. 

Finished with De Tanga's room, the unknown person headed for Hallas' room with the same key in hand. And like the previous door it unlocked Hallas' door too. The intruder snuck into Hallas' room only to find that the klutzy officer was nowhere in sight. With a quick check around the person left Hallas' room and headed for Death's. 

Death's room had been locked as well since both Hallas and him figured it be a better. If the person who took Death's cell phone came back then they could figure out who it was when they unlocked the door. But when the person did unlock the door and came in neither Death or Hallas was awake too see them. The intruder evilly grinned. 

~*~

Gourry grumbled in his sleep as he felt something cold on his face. He blinked in confusion as he woke up. He found himself sprawled out on the cold wood floor in his room. 

'Oh I must have fallen off my bed last night when I went to sleep. Oh well it's morning, so that means… breakfast!' Gourry was immediately up and out his bedroom door. He hummed softly as he happily skipped downstairs towards the kitchen. 

On the way he passed by Mr. Boddy's famous laboratory and he stopped in the hallway when he heard something coming from the room. A big part of Gourry wanted to ignore the sound and continue straight for the kitchen but instead against his better judgment Gourry went in to investigate. 

When he went inside the room he saw that there wasn't anyone in the room and that everything seemed to look fine. 

Gourry was about to leave when he heard that noise again. It sounded like a loud banging noise and it was coming from the laboratory wall. 'Now what is going on here?' 

He walked up to the wall and noticed that the sounds were coming from behind a large filing cabinet which was pushed up against the door. 'Hmm… maybe if I move this I can figure out what's going on here.' 

Gourry pushed the cabinet out of the way and then all of a sudden the wall swung open and De Tanga came rushing out. 

"AT LAST! I'M FREE!!!" De Tanga yells out in happiness. And then he looks over to the person who had freed him. "Colonel Mustard?! And where the hell have you been?!" De Tanga exclaimed. 

"Huh? What do you mean?" 

"You disappeared last night right before or after the power outage. We looked all over for you and we couldn't find you anywhere." 

Gourry thought really hard for a moment. "I did wake up this morning in my room laying on the floor. But I do remember talking to Sylphiel last night." 

"Yes that's right you were talking to her. You left because you remembered the reason why you came the manor and you went off to tell me or the other two officers. Do you remember what happened after that?" 

"Um…." Gourry thought for a few moments. "I don't remember anything at all." Gourry rubbed the back of his neck and laughed with a sheepish grin. 

De Tanga his face in his hands and shook his head. "Okay fine you don't remember what happen then, you might have been knocked unconscious. But do you remember the reason why you came to the manor that you were going to tell me?" 

"Well let's see…. Nope, don't remember it at all." 

De Tanga facefaulted. 'I bet this was his kidnappers intent. Keep him locked up some place till he forgot the reason again. It's amazing how some people have so much trouble remembering things.' "Oh well… so how did you find me and get me out of there?" 

"I heard some noises so I came in to investigate. They were coming from the wall so I moved the filing cabinet that up against the wall and the wall moved on its' own." 

De Tanga mentally sighed. 'Looks like now we're going to have to make sure we have someone outside the passage at all times when someone is inside to make sure no one gets stuck in there.' "Alright thank you Colonel, why don't you go back to what you were going to do before came into this room." 

"Okay." And Gourry skipped back off towards the kitchen. 

'Interesting that he can easily get himself lost in the manor, but he has no trouble finding the kitchen.' De Tanga sighed and decided to go up to his room. He was planning on giving Hallas and Death hell for not finding him and getting him out of that secret passage. 

Because of Hallas and Death, De Tanga didn't get a wink of sleep and he was tired. He had spent the whole night trying to somehow pry the passageway door open with his knife. He was not only tried, but sleepy, sore and very dirty. 

De Tanga stormed up the stairs not caring on how much noise he was making. First he went to his room. He unlocked it and went in and gave the room a quick look around. Everything seemed to be in order and nothing seemed to be missing. He locked the door on the way out and went over to Hallas' room. The door was locked and he couldn't hear anything inside the quiet room. De Tanga tried knocking but he got no answer. 

Next he went over to Death's room and to his surprise the door was hanging agar. It was unlocked and he gave the door a slight push and it swung open. Inside the room he saw Death sleeping his bed and Hallas sleeping in a chair facing the door. 

De Tanga sighed before he woke the two of them up. "WAKE UP!!!!" De Tanga yelled very loudly. 

The two younger officers woke up with a start. Death got out of the bed while Hallas fell of his chair and crashed onto the ground. 

"Detective Tealson, you're back! What time is it?" Death asked rubbing his eyes. "And why are you so dirty?" 

"It's well after 9 am. And why am I dirty?! I'll tell you why! I've been stuck in that damn laboratory passage the whole night!!!!" De Tanga yelled in frustration. 

"Why were you in there?" 

"Because I thought that Colonel Mustard might have been hidden in there. And when I went in someone locked me in." De Tanga plopped down on a nearby chair and massaged his temples. 

"Oh man! How did you get out?" 

"Colonel Mustard moved the filing cabinet that was blocking the wall passage this morning only a few minutes ago." 

"Oh that's good…. WHAT?!?!? Colonel Mustard?!" 

"Yeah I know I was surprised too. He doesn't remember what happened to him, nor does he remember what he was going to tell us. The last thing he remembers was talking to Sylphiel and then waking up in his room on the floor." 

Both Hallas and Death were quiet in thought. 

De Tanga glared at the two of them. "Would you mind telling me why neither of you decided to go and check to see why I was gone for so long, why you were both asleep when I came in, and why your door was unlocked and hanging open?!" 

"Well I took first watch and figured that you were just being throughout so that's why you were taking so long. So I figured that you'd be coming back soon anyway when I went off my watch so I told Hallas to be on the look out for you when he went on his watch." 

Both De Tanga and Death's eyes turned to Hallas whom was staring at the floor. 

"Hallas, did you fall asleep during you watch?" 

Hallas mumbled something that wasn't audible. 

"Hallas?!" 

"I'm sorry, I did fall asleep…" Hallas said still staring at the ground. 

Both De Tanga and Death shook their heads. 

"Well I couldn't help it! I was very, very tired last night!" Hallas protested. 

"Okay fine whatever, you fell asleep that's okay. But why by the gods did you guys leave your room unlocked and hanging open for?!" 

Both Death and Hallas blinked in confusion. "We didn't." 

Everyone was silent for a few moments. And then they all proceeded to do a mad search of all three rooms to see what might be missing. At the end of the search they found out that three things that were missing. 

"They took my gun!" Death cried out hysterically. 

"They took mine too!" Hallas exclaimed but as dramatically as Death. In fact Death was now curled up in a little ball sitting on the ground with his lower lip quivering and a waterfall of tears threatening to pour down his cheeks. 

"Well I had my gun on me, but they took my cell phone charger. So now I can't charge my damn cell phone." De Tanga sighed. "I don't suppose either of you would have a charger that would work on my cell phone?" 

Hallas shook his head while Death ignored him, still whimpering about his lost gun. 

De Tanga grabbed Death by the collar. "Death get a hold of yourself!" He slapped Death a couple of times on the face and that got the whimpering officer back to reality. 

"Thanks Detective, I needed that…" 

"Well we have a problem here. Unless the phones are working again in the manor, we're going to need to go and drive out to notify the station." De Tanga observed. "Let's go try one of the phones." 

The three of them once dressed in clean clothes, started going through the manor in search of a working phone. But their search was futile, none of phones worked in the manor. 

"They should have gotten the phone lines back up by now! I'm going to report to this to the city services!" Hallas exclaimed. 

"I don't think they are at fault when chances are someone in the manor cut all the phone lines. So that leaves us having to drive out to contact the station. Let's go out the front." 

The day was reasonably nicer the night before. Though it was cold and windy, there were a few blue spots in the sheet of white clouds in the sky. 

The cars were right where they had parked them, only there was a problem with the three cars. On each of the three cars all the tires had been slashed. And it was the same with all the cars that were parked in front of the manor. 

"Looks like someone wants to make sure that none of us leave…" 


	12. Cluedo S, act 12

Cluedo S

Act Twelve

By Relm

~*~

The three officers pondered the recent turn events quietly as they stood out in front of the manor staring at the cars. 

"Why do you suppose someone would want to keep us all here?" Hallas dared asked De Tanga. 

"Probably because that person is planning on killing us." De Tanga replied in a dry tone. 

Hallas gasped with wide eyes while Death just mumbled something under his breath about what he would do if he had his gun. 

"What are we going to do Detective Tealson?" 

"First we're going to check all the cars to see if there are any spare tires." De Tanga declared heading off to his assigned unmarked police car. He went to put his key in the keyhole to the trunk when he realized that the trunk had been pried and was hanging slightly open. He lifted the trunk and saw what he had expected to see, no spare tire in the trunk. 

Upon examination they discovered that all the cars parked in front had been broken into sometime during the night and there wasn't any spare tires in any of the trunks. 

"I can't believe this many people would drive cars without spare tires. That's definitely an unsafe thing to do, you should always have a least one spare tire just in case you get a flat." Hallas disapprovingly observed. 

Both Death and De Tanga rolled his eyes. 

"Hallas they had spare tires, but someone stole them. That's why all the trunks were broken into." 

"Oh." 

"Well in any case we are stuck here for the time being. We might as well continue to work on the case." De Tanga walked off back into the manor with Hallas and Death following close behind him. 

"But what are we going to do now? If we stay here we might get killed!" 

"Would you rather walk home Hallas? Because it's a really long walk." De Tanga glared at Hallas. 

Seeing De Tanga's point, Hallas didn't answer. 

"But are we going to do now?" 

"We're going to go join everyone for breakfast. And while we're at breakfast we're gong to mention about the tires to everyone." 

"But wont that cause a panic?" 

"That's the point." 

Both Hallas and Death looked at De Tanga blankly. 

"Why would we want to cause a panic for?" 

"To see who freaks out and who doesn't." 

"But why would we want to know that?" 

"Because Hallas, the people who don't seem surprised are most likely the ones who slashed and stole the spare tires." De Tanga said with a yawn. "Also I want to see what everyone's reaction to Colonel Mustard's sudden return. Those not surprised are the most likely suspects." 

"Detective Tealson did you get any sleep last night?" 

"What do you think?" De Tanga glared at Death before walking through the door to the dining room. 

Inside they were greeted by the sight of Colonel Gourry Mustard. In fact he was the only person in the room. 

"Good morning!" Gourry beamed at them cheerfully. 

"Good morning Colonel. Do you know where everyone else is?" 

"Umm…." Gourry thought hard. 

"I'll take that as a no." 

The three of them joined Gourry at the table. 

"I guess the others aren't up yet." 

"Miss White is up, she's in the kitchen." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that Colonel, did you see her there?" 

"No I couldn't get in, the door to the kitchen was locked. I think after yesterday Miss White doesn't want anyone in there unless she's there as well." 

"Then how do you know that she's in there." 

"Because I can smell the food." 

They looked at him with curiosity before they took a sniff. And as Gourry had said they smelled the faint smell of eggs and bacon in the air. 

"When does everyone start eating?" 

"Well when Miss White is almost done cooking she gets anyone whose already up to get everyone else up for breakfast. And then we eat." 

Just as Gourry said that Amelia came into the dining room wearing her maid uniform. She did a double take once she saw Gourry. "Colonel Mustard! You're back! What happened to you? You had everyone so worried about you last night!" 

"I dunno, I just woke up in my room this morning. And I don't remember how I got there." Gourry said with a laugh. 

Amelia sweatdropped. "Well at least it's nice to see that you are alright. Good morning everyone I hoped you all slept well." 

De Tanga grumbled after Amelia said that. 

Amelia raised an eyebrow before continuing. "Breakfast is almost ready, would you guys mind waking everyone up for breakfast?" 

"Sure we'll do it." 

The four of them got up and went towards the staircase. 

"Wait a minute this place is huge with many rooms, how are we supposed to know which rooms everyone are sleeping in?" 

"I've got a list of everyone's rooms. And Colonel Mustard should know some of the rooms, right Colonel?" 

Gourry's face went blank. "Well actually I'm usually one of the people that needs to be woken up when breakfast is ready. This is the first time that I'm actually awake before everyone else." Gourry said sheepishly. 

De Tanga, Death and Hallas sweatdropped. 

"Anyway we're at Mr. Green's room already, so I guess we should start with waking him up." De Tanga declared as he went to knock on Carbunkle's door. De Tanga knocked loudly, "Mr. Green are you awake? Breakfast is almost ready." 

There was no reply from Carbunkle's room. 

"Mr. Green? Mr. Green are you in there?" 

Still nothing. 

"Mr. Green?!" 

The door to Carbunkle's room slowly opened revealing a very cross-looking accountant. "Alright I'm up, go away." 

"Are you going to come down soon? You're breakfast will get cold." Gourry pointed out. 

Carbunkle was going to snap at him but instead he blinked in surprise. "Huh? When did you get back? And where were you? No, no nevermind I don't want to know. I have a feeling it will give me a larger headache then I already have. Anyway, leave. I can't get ready with you guys loitering in front of my room." Carbunkle barked while slamming the door on them. 

"Well he's definitely a morning person." Death declared sarcastically. 

"Really you think so? I thought he looked a little cranky to me." Gourry observed. 

No one responded to Gourry's statement. 

Lina was next and she wasn't happy either when she was rudely awoken. "What?!" Lina snapped at them. 

"Breakfast is almost read-" 

"Breakfast! Food!" Lina slammed the door to her room and within seconds she was out her door fully dressed. She zoomed down the hall and the stairs without paying any attention to them at all. 

Zelgadis was already getting out of his room when they got his door. "Oh good morning every- Colonel Mustard? You're back, what happened to you last night? Did you get lost or something?" 

"Ummm…." 

"Nevermind I'll find out later. I suppose I'll see you all later downstairs." Zelgadis gave them a nod before walking past them. 

On Filia's door there was a sign on it that read 'Do not Disturb, Not Even for Breakfast.' 

They looked to Gourry and Gourry just shrugged. "Miss Peach is always the last one to breakfast." 

Rather then risking Filia's wraith they continued on their way. 

Next they came to Xellos' room and as they were about to knock Xellos appeared right behind them. 

"Doing the morning wake up call? Oh Colonel Mustard! You have re-appeared. Did you have fun on your little getaway?" Xellos asked mischievously. 

"Huh?" Gourry blinked in confusion. 

"Nevermind Colonel. We'll see you downstairs Professor." 

"I would assume so. Oh and good morning." Xellos gave them one last smile before heading downstairs. 

"Well so far our dear old Professor has given the most unsurprised reaction to Colonel Mustard." De Tanga mused. 

"Do you think that Professor Plum was responsible for Colonel Mustard's disappearance?" 

"Maybe, maybe not. Professor Plum is a strange man to begin with so maybe we weren't likely to see him surprised about anything." 

They continued on to Martina's room, which was next in the hall. 

First De Tanga knocked, but there was no answer. "Madame Rose? You are awke?" 

Still more silence. De Tanga knocked again, "Madame Rose are you there?" 

Nothing. 

"Madame Rose?!" 

More knocking, and still more silence. 

"Madame Rose are you in there?!" 

Suddenly the door next to Martina's opened and an angry Martina wearing a pink silk robe came out. "Do you have to make so much damn noise?" She hissed at them. 

"Well we came to wake you up for breakfast, but you weren't in your room so that's why we were making so much noise. Tell me Madame Rose what are you doing in Mr. Brunette's room?" 

Martina's face suddenly went beet red as she just realized the situation. "Ah-a- never you mind that!" Martina slammed the door in a flustered manor and the four men in the hallway could make out the sounds of a muffled male voice in the room with Martina. 

De Tanga made a mental note to find out exactly what type of a relationship Madame Rose and Mr. Brunette had. 

The last room was Sylphiel's. But they didn't need to knock because she was already leaving her room. 

She almost jumped a mile when she saw them right outside her door. "Oh my! You started me!" Sylphiel exclaimed putting a hand to her chest and took a deep breath. 

"Sorry we startled you Sylphiel." Gourry said while rubbing the back of his neck. 

Sylphiel stared at the Colonel with wide eyes in surprise before jumping into his arms giving him a hug. "You had me so worried! You just disappeared right after I saw you last night! Are you okay? Where were you?" 

"Uh, I don't really remember…" 

"But you're okay right?" 

"Oh yeah! I'm fine, sorry I worried you." 

Sylphiel blushed slightly. But then she blushed even more when she realized that everyone was staring at her. "Let's go to breakfast shall we?" 

~*~

Breakfast was served and part way through Filia came down with a yawn. Xellos gave her a sly grin. "Tired are we? You must have been up late last night. But what were you doing Filia-dear?" 

Filia glared daggers at him. "Don't you ever call me Filia-dear ever again unless you want to feel pain." 

"Is that a threat or a promise?" 

Filia huffed and sat herself at the table and begun to eat. 

A little while later everyone was done and just drinking coffee. De Tanga took this opportunity to announce the news. 

"Can I get everyone's attention? I want to make an announcement. Due to our situation with our cell phones Death, Hallas and I decided that we were going to go to the station this morning, but we couldn't. All of the cars outside apparently had their tires slashed sometime last night." 

Everyone gasped and De Tanga carefully observed everyone in the room. As expected Xellos was the only one who didn't seem slightly distraught. 

"That's terrible!" 

"And it gets worse. All the cars were broken into. It looks like the trunks off all the cars had been pried open with a crowbar or something. And it also looks like all the spare tires that might have been in the trunks have been stolen." 

"Oh dear looks like someone wants to keep us captive here." Xellos joked with a laugh. Everyone glared at him. 

Xellos was becoming more and more suspicious every moment, as well as everyone else. 


	13. Cluedo S, act 13

Cluedo S

Act Thirteen

By Relm

~*~

After breakfast was over everyone gathered together outside to see the scene De Tanga had spoken of. 

Mosty everyone cried out in outrage. Not a single tire was left untouched. The person who had done it intended to make sure that everyone was stuck at the mannor. 

"My car! How could someone do this to my beautiful car?!" Mr. Brunette cried out while examining the damage done to his trunk and tires. 

It was a shocked reaction that was similar to everyone else. 

The only exceptions of those shocked were Lina and Filia who didn't voice their discontent about their respective cars, but they didn't need to because it was convayed by the visible gritting of their teeth. From that one could gather that they weren't exactly happy about the recent turn of events. 

And then there was Xellos. Xellos truely was the only person who didn't seem the slightest bit upset by what he saw. 

"Oh my, isn't this quite funny, not a single car was left with working tires. Now we're all stuck here at the manor with no way to get abck to civiliation for sure. Now isn't this going to be fun?" Xellos grinned clapping his hands together. He got some very ugly glares, but no responses. 

"Arn't you at the least bit annoyed at what happened to your car?" Hallas finally asked the estranged professor, breaking the spell of silence. 

"Why no, should I be?" 

"Yes you should, I would be if my car was damaged like this." 

"Oh yes I would be too." Xellos responded nodding his head. 

"But it did happen to your car." Hallas pointed out. 

"No, my car is perfectly fine." 

"Look all the cars here are damaged!" 

"Yes and I see that, but my car is fine." Xellos insisted, still smiling. 

"No it shouldn't be! Every single car here has no working tires! So tell me how the hell your car could be fine?!" Hallas near screamed at Xellos whom still remained to be perfectly fine. 

"I took a taxi here, I didn't drive." 

Hallas facefaulted while everyone else sweatdropped. 

De Tanga shook his head at the scene. From Xellos' previous reaction in the dining room De Tanga had expected something like this. "Mr. Boddy was quite a wealthy man, and being as weathly as he was he must have had at least one or two cars. Miss White where did Mr. Boddy keep his vechiles?" 

"Um.... well... Mr. Boddy believed cars were deathtraps after his mother died in a car wreck so..." 

"He never owned one." de Tanga finished off. 

"Yes unfortunitly so." 

"Well what about cars he inheritaded from his parents?" 

"He sold them shortly after they came into his posession,: 

De Tanga frowned. Now he really didn't have anyway to get back to the station even if he had the case solved. So his only option was to solve the case quickly and to survive until someone sent help. No doubtly the Chief would get suspicious if De Tanga didn't report back in a certain amount of time. Hell even Luna herself would come hunting him down if he didn't cal her within the next two days. 

Then there was also the telephone lines. There was still a chance that the phones in the manor hadn't been tampered with and that this was really just a just a problem with the telephone lines. And the phones would be working soon. But De Tanga didn't put any faith in that. He was damned certain that the lines in the manor had been cut purposely. 

De Tanga quietly approched Hallas and Death from behing and tapped them both on the sholder. He motioned them to be quiet and to follow him. 

They went back into the manor and went in the dinning room. 

"So what do you two think?" De tanga asked the two younger officers once they sat down. 

"About what?" 

"Well, from what you've seen and what you've deduced, who do you think is mostly like of the suspects to have killed Mr. Boddy?" 

Both Hallas and Death thought for a few moments. 

"From the way Professor Plum has been acting I'd say him." Hallas stated. 

"No that's way too obvious." Retored Death with a snort. 

"So what itf it's obvious?!" 

"Well usually the cluprit is the least obvious one out of the suspects. But Professor Plum is the most obvious one!" 

"Well maybe he knows that we know that the most obvious one is the least unlikely one to have done the crime and that's why he's acting so suspicious so we wouldn't suspect him!" Hallas retored back to Death while crossing his arms. 

De Tanga just blinked at them both in slight confusion. "So Hallas let me get this straight, you are saying that Professor Plum is acting suspicious on purpose so that we'd think he was innocent?" 

"That's right." Hallas said nodding his head. 

Death just rolled his eyes and shook his head. 

Hallas shot him a glare. "Well if you are so dead certain that it's not Professor Plum, then enlighten us, who do you think did it, hmmm?" 

"Colonel Mustard." 

"Oh Colonel Mustard I'd thought - wait a mintue!!! Colonel Mustard?! Are you nuts?! Why the heck do you think he did it?!?!" 

"Well he is the least likely one isn't he?" 

"Yeah only because he's a complete clueless goof! And besides how could he do it anyway? I mean the person who slashed the tires and stole out stuff is the murderer right? Because he or she is trying to interfier with the investigation. Well the murderer must also be the smae person who cut the power and kidnapped Colonel Mustard till he forgot the infomration he was going to tell us!" Hallas snapped at Death. 

"That might be true, but who's to say that Colonel Mustard isn't just a very good actor? Maybe he was the one who set up the whole thing with the power outage and just pretended that he was kidnapped. And while everyone was searching for him he could have gone and slashed all the tires. Lets also think back to what happened to Detective Tealson. Someone trapped him in that passage, it didn't just close on its' own. And who was the person who got Detectieve Tealson out? Colonel Mustard. Colonel Mustard could just easily be playing dumb about everything." 

"I think you're wrong!" 

"Well I think you're wrong!" 

Death and Hallas locked glares. 

"Would you two knock it off?!?!" De Tanga waved his hands in front of the two breaking their stares. "Both suspects are probably just as suspicious as everyone else. And Death does make a good point, even thought I don't have a any ideas at the moment at what Colonel Mustard's motive would be. But then I still have yet to talk to everyone alone. So I don't want you two getting all worked up about whoes right and whoes wrong about the murderer." De Tanga scolded them both and let out a sigh. "I just wish I could get a hold of a working phone." De tanga sighed. 

"Well maybe the phone lines weren't cut after all and they star working again soon." Hallas said hopefully. 

Both Death and De Tanga glared at Hallas and shook their heads. 

De Tanga was going to say something more but then he head the others coming back inside. "Offivers, we'll continue this later." De tanga gave them a nod before walking off upstairs. 

~*~

The city Chief of Police walked down the cold silent halls of the building that led to the city morgue. 

Ever since De tanga had called in that stiff the day before, the forensics had been working non-stop trying to piece together information. 

Inside the morgue room stood the infamous Dr. Steel, covered in blood looking over the dead body on his examining table. 

Dr. Stell had quite a reputation among the morgue staff. He was known as 'the man that never sleeps' because it didn't matter what time of the day it was or what day in the week it was, you could always fing him in the mrgue hard at work. 

"Good afternoon Dr. Steel." The Chief greated the estranged doctor. 

"You are twenty-five minutes off from accurately saying that greeting. It is only 11:35 a.m." Dr. Steel replied without looking up to the Cheif or even bothering to check the time. 

That was another thing that Dr. Steel was known for. He never wore a watch and there wasn't a clock in the morgue, but somehow he always knew what time it was. 

"Well then, doog morning Dr. Steel." 

"Good morning to you too Chief. I supposed you came down to check on our little stiff friend here from yesterday?" Dr. Steel asked but still didn't look up from his work. 

"What can you tell me?" 

"Well I can tell you that someoen went to a great deal of trouble to make sure his cause of death wouldn't be easy to figure out as well as his identity. He seems to have been struck with several blunt objects, shot a couple of times and it looks like he may have been strangled. But his body is such a mess that we're still having trouble trying to pin the exact cause of death." Dr. Steel finally looked up to the Chief before walking over to the sink to remove his gloves and wash his hands. 

"But is it Mr. Boddy?" 

"Here, take a look at my intial report." Dr. Steel said pulling out a folder and handed it to the Chief. "It doesn't include the DNA, toxicology and ballistics results, we're still waiting for those to come in. I'll give you a more concise report later once I have more information. But that should still be usefull for Decteive Tealson." 

"Thanks Dr. Steel, I'll see you later." The Chief said while leaving the morgue. 

Once he got back to his office the Chief sat down and leafed through the report. What he read made his eyes go wide. 

'I need to tell this to Detective Tealson right away.' The Chief thought as he reached for his phone. He dailed up De Tanga's cell phone nimber and let it ring waiting for an answer. But De Tanga didn't answer his phone. 

The Chief frowned. 'It's not like him to not answer his phone when he's on a case.' But then he thought back to the conversation he had with Luna, de Tanga's wife, an hour or two ago. According to what Luna had told him, De Tanga's cell phone battery was dead and nned to be re-charged. 

'Well then maybe his phone hasn't been charged yet. I guess I could try Hallas' cell phone.' 

He tried Hallas' number and like with De Tanga's phone, he didn't get an answer. 

'Damnit what's going ton here?! Th eonly one that's left is Officer Noir's cell phone, and I don't even know if I have his number!' 

After a few minutes of hunting through his office, the Chief finally found Death's personel record. 

He quickly dialed the young officer's number and was puzzelled to discover that Death too wasn't answering his phone. 

'What in the devil is going on here?!?!' 

~*~

De Tanga walked up the stairs and down the hall till he reached where his room and death and Hallas' rooms were. 

The rooms were exactly the way he had left them, a mess. It was so obvious that the person who ransacked the rooms were looking for something. But the question was, did he or she find what they were looking for? 

It's true that they might have only gone through the rooms in search of their guns or ways to ruin their means of contacting the station. De Tanga had a strong feeling that besides the previously mentioned reasons, the person was probably after the case file and De Tanga's case notes. But he was going to make damned sure that he had the case file and his notes on him at all times. 'But is that going to mean that I'm not going to get any sleep?' De Tanga thought thinking about when he found both Hallas and Death sleeping in the room when one of them was supposed to be awake at all times. 'Something tells me that letting Hallas take watch isn't going to be such a safe thing to do. 

De Tanga yawned loudly as he sat down. He was tried, very tired. He had not gotten any sleep in over twenty-four hours. Though it was true that he didn't really need too much sleep, but even he had his limits. 

A big part of him wanted to fon and jump onto his bed and drift off into sleep. But thankfully he had more control then that. 

'What do i do now? There's still a few more of them that I need to talk to, including the estranged Professor Plum.' De Tanga thought while leafing through the case file and his notes. He jotted down a few more notes about the events that had just transpired in the last 24 hours. 

He eyed over the part he had just written concerning Martina sleeping in the same room as Zangulus. 

'I think I'll go and talk to Mr. Brunette about his relationship with Madame Rose.' 

~*~

The Chief of Police put down his phone after over 20 minutes of trying to reach Detective De Tanga Tealson and officers Death Noir and Hallas Beige. The Chief hadn't through to any og them and he was starting to get anxious. 

'I guess the only way to get the information to Detective Tealson is if I send someone over there with the report.' The Chief thought while frowning. 

He didn't know who it was, but there was someone in the station that was leaking out sensitive information to the press. And because of which, certain investigarions that should have been solved quickly ended up being delayed due to medling reporters. 

The last thing the Chief wnted was having a bunch of nosy reporters swarming around the Boddy Manor causing problems. 

That was one of the reasons why he was carefull about who he sent out on this case. He knew very well how trustworthy De Tanga was, and he also knew that De Tanga would definetly make sure the investigation was kept secret. 

So far the news of Mr. Boddy's murder hadn't leaked out yet to the public, and the Chief intended to keep it that way till the case was solved. 

The Chief realized the only option he had. He needed to go to the Boddy Manor himself and personally deliver the information to De Tanga. 

He let out a heavy sigh before reaching in his coat pocket for his car keys. 


	14. Cluedo S, act 14

Cluedo S

Act Fourteen

By Relm

~*~

De Tanga looked around for Zangulus for quite some time till he finally found him still mulling over his car. 

Zangulus was so absorbed with examining the damage done to his car that he didn't notice De Tanga approaching him from behind. 

Two thoughts occurred to De Tanga as he approached the art dealer. One that Zangulus might just be very good actor and was actually aware of De Tanga's presence. Or Zangulus wasn't the one who sabotage the cars. Because if Zangulus was the one who did do this to all the cars he wouldn't be so distraught over what he did to his car. 

Does Zangulus not tampering with the cars make him any less of a suspect? No, he was still as much of a suspect as everyone else. 

There was the fact that Zangulus could be acting, but that wasn't really what De Tanga was thinking towards. In Hallas and Death's dispute they used the cars in the argument thinking that the same person who destroyed the cars was the same person that murdered Mr. Boddy. 

What De Tanga decided not to point out was that there was no real proof that the person that sabotaged the cars, the person who tampered with the phone lines, the person who kidnapped Gourry or even the person that broke into their rooms and stole their stuff was the same person that killed Mr. Boddy. Wasn't likely, but it was still a valid point. 

De Tanga knew for a fact that there was quite a few people that might want to delay the investigation. Like for instances he had already uncovered Carbunkle and Martina's little money embezzlements. Either one of them could be hiding a dark secret besides who killed Mr. Boddy. Again not likely, but still a valid point. 

"Mr. Brunette, may I speak with you for a few moments?" De Tanga asked in a quiet tone as to not startle the man. 

"Ah-um, yeah sure Detective. What can I do for you?" Zangulus asked in a nervous tone. 

"First, how about we go inside, it looks like that it might start to rain soon." 

Zangulus followed De Tanga to Mr. Boddy's study. 

"The reason why Mr. Boddy asked you to come here was about a recent painting you sold that he claimed to be a fake. And it was really a fake. Am I correct?" De Tanga asked once the tow of them had sat down. He pulled out his notepad and waited for Zangulus to answer. 

"Yes, I sold him a fake. In fact practically all the paintings I've sold him were fakes. But the weird thing was that Mr. Boddy always seemed to know they were fakes even before he bought them. And then afterwards he's call me over and give me heck for it. Then he would be all nice and keep whatever art I had sold him. But he always made sure to remind me before I left that he could go to the police at any time with the art I sold him. And he'd go back to being nice and wish me good travels. I swear that guy was a real nutcase." Zangulus shook his head. 

"So in a way he was blackmailing you?" 

"More like threatening to blackmail me." 

De Tanga nodded jotted down in note form what Zangulus was telling him. "Alright, tell me Mr. Brunette, what is your relationship with Madame Rose?" 

Rather then look away or frown, Zangulus blushed. "Well I've been doing business with Mr. Boddy for quite some time. But whenever I came over here I never stayed long. Most of the time I was only here for an hour at most and I only saw the halls and Mr. Boddy's office. So I never got to see anyone of Mr. Boddy's staff except Mar- I mean Miss Rosengarten." 

"And you became interested with Miss Rosengarten?" De Tanga prompted. 

"Oh yes, almost instantly. And whenever I had to wait to see Mr. Boddy she and I flirted with each other." Zangulus paused slightly before continuing on. "I always looked forward to seeing her. Sometimes I would call the Manor at times when I knew that he would be busy or not at home just so that I could have an excuse to talk to Miss Rosengarten. And it got to the point that I would stay in town a few extra days just so that I could spend time with her when she wasn't busy. But then one day I came over to the manor after Mr. Boddy summoned me and I was shocked to find out that Miss Rosengarten had been fired! I pressed both Mr. Boddy and the maid Amelia, to see if I could find out where Miss Rosengarten had gone. From what they told me, she went off to Hungary to become a medium." 

"I take it you went to Hungary right after that?" 

"Oh yes! Right after my business with Mr. Boddy was done I rushed over to Hungary to find her." 

"And did you propose to her once you found her?" 

Zangulus didn't say anything. 

"Well you two are married, aren't you?" 

Instead of directly answering De Tanga's question he back to his story. "When I went to Hungary I didn't exactly find her right away. I was there for more then two months before I thought to check my home phone messages to see if she had left any messages for me. And she had. She left a message telling me where she was and where she was working. So I head off to where she worked and I went in pretending to be a customer. She didn't look up when I came in the room and sat down in front of her. She had her eyes on her crystal ball the whole time trying to keep her concentration. So we start the session and she is so absorbed with telling my fortune that she didn't realize it was me from my voice." 

De Tanga fought the urge to badger Zangulus to get to the point. He was growing tired of this long drawn out story. But he didn't want to be rude, so De Tanga kept his mouth shut and continued to listen. 

"So we end the session and I told her, 'For a psychic I'm a little surprised you didn't know something.' She snapped at me asking what she should have known while finally looking up at me. I can still remember the shocked look on her face at that moment." 

"What were you surprised that she didn't know?" De Tanga asked while pretending to be still taking notes down. De Tanga wasn't though; the detective was actually doodling instead. 

"Well what I told her was, 'That you didn't see this coming,' and then I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me." 

"And she said yes?" 

"Oh yeah, she did." Zangulus grinned largely. 

"So her reason for coming here wasn't because she saw a vision was it?" 

"No it was completely false." Zangulus answered. "The only reason she came was because she was sick and tired of me going off for days or weeks on business and leaving her at home alone. So she decided that she was going to come with me this time." 

De Tanga nodded his head while finally taking notes again. "I thought her story didn't seem too plausible." 

"Well please don't tell her I told you. So had asked me not to say anything." 

"How come?" 

"Because we're still trying to keep our marriage a secret." 

De Tanga decided not to press him further, though her was a little curious as to why they'd want to keep their relationship a secret. "Well if you really want to keep it a secret then I'd suggest you two should stick to sleeping in your own rooms rather then sleep together." De Tanga suggested. 

"Yes Detective. Is there anything else you want to ask me?" 

"No, I think that will be enough. Thank you for your time Mr. Brunette." 

"No problem." 

Both of them nodded to each other before going off in different directions. 

De Tanga strolled through the manor again while contemplating his conversation with Zangulus. With the information he'd just acquired new motives but also some information that disproved some of his earlier suspicions concerning Martina. But one cancels out the other so she still ended up being just as much as a suspect as she had been before. 

According to his notes he had spoken to only four of the ten suspects. By this time he had wanted to at least talk to half of them. But due to certain events that wasn't possible. And not that his means to contact the station or anyone else outside the Boddy Manor were cut, it was a little more critical that he solve the case quickly. 

"So, who should I talk to now?" De Tanga mused eyeing the names of the suspects he had left to speak to. His eyes fell upon the name of Professor Xellos Plum. 

~*~

The Chief let a few of the other officers know that he was going to be leaving for a few hours. But he failed to mention on where exactly he was going. He figured it would be better if no one knew that he was going to the Boddy Manor so as to not start any rumors. The thought hadn't occurred to him that the reason De Tanga hadn't contacted him was beyond De Tanga's control. 

He eyed the parking lot for reporters as he approached his car. Not a single camera or suspicious person was in sight. 

The Chief let out a sigh and shock his head at his paranoia before getting into his car and starting up the engine. 

~*~

After a bit of searching through the manor, De Tanga finally found Xellos sitting outside in the gazebo drinking tea. At this point it had already started raining and it was coming down pretty hard. If it had not been for the gazebo's roof Xellos would have been soaked. But the gazebo did nothing to keep the man warm from the cold winds being as how open gazebos are. 

De Tanga shock off some of the rain from his coat and joined Xellos at the little table that was situated in the middle of the gazebo. 

"Have you come to join me for tea Detective?" Xellos asked after De Tanga had sat himself down in one of the chairs. 

"No I'm afraid I haven't. I've actually come here to ask you a few questions." 

"Oh what a pity. And here I have all this tea that I couldn't possibly drink myself. It's going to cold. Please, you must have some. It's not a good idea to sit out here in the cold without something to keep you warm." Xellos said while pouring some tea into the cup in front of De Tanga. 

De Tanga mentally frowned. If he drank the tea he ran the risk of being poisoned if Xellos had put something in the tea. But if De Tanga refused to drink it then Xellos might suspect that De Tanga was suspicious of him. 

Luckily for De Tanga, Xellos poured himself another cup from the same teapot as he had poured for De Tanga, and drank some it. 

Though De Tanga still had his suspicions he still accepted the tea. 

"So why are you out here in the rain for? Isn't this a cold place to be drinking tea?" 

Xellos grinned. "I didn't come out here to drink tea. But I'm only drinking tea because it's cold." 

"So why sit out here at all?" 

"To watch the rain of course. Since the gazebo has no windows I can sit out here and watch the rain clearly and enjoy it without getting wet." 

De Tanga decided not to comment on that and instead got back to his questions. "Professor Plum how long did you know Mr. Boddy for?" 

"Oh quite some time! We were friends ever since we were kids." 

"How did you two meet?" 

"Our families have been friends with each other for quite some time. So we of grew up together." 

"And would you say that you two were really good friends?" 

Xellos raised an eyebrow. "Yes of course. Why?" 

"From what I've been told you two didn't always get along. Like on the night of Mr. Boddy's death you two were apparently having an argument with him." De Tanga said while checking over his notes. 

"Well all good friends do have their tiffs." 

"What were two arguing about?" 

Xellos took a sip of his tea before answering the question. "We were arguing about money. I didn't come here to see if I could money out of him. I came to see him and get the money he was going to lend me. You see he already said that he was going to lend me the money for the project before I came here." 

"What happened?" 

"Well when I got here he gave the impression hat he was still going to still lend me the money. But then on that night he called me to his study to talk. It was then that he said that he wasn't going to lend me the money. Apparently he had looked into my new project and he didn't think it sounded like a real project. He claimed that it was all a ploy just to get at his money and that I was lying to him. That I wanted the money for myself and he didn't think I had any intensions of paying him back." 

"And that made you angry?" De Tanga prompted while jotting down notes in his notebook. 

"Yes and not because he wasn't going to give me the money. That just slightly annoyed me because I had already told the members of my association that I was getting the money. But it didn't make me angry. What made me angry was that he had the gull to call me a liar and claim that I was trying to screw him over." Xellos shook his head in the act of disgust but it contrasted with the grin on his face. 

"Hmm… I see. Did Mr. Boddy have a history of going back on his promises?" 

"Yes he was an extremely paranoid man, more so then you might think. He thought everyone was out to get him, out to get his money or just out there to screw him over. He'd break promises if he thought that the person was actually trying to get something out of him unlawfully. But just as paranoid as he could get he'd turn right back to his too trusting self. So he's disagree to something and then agree to it right after. Or he'd agree to it then disagree to it right after. It was like there were two different people in him that were constantly having an argument with each other on what he should or shouldn't do." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow. This wasn't the first mention of Mr. Boddy's sudden personality changes that De Tanga had heard about. 

"Okay… Can you tell me why you never called Mr. Boddy by his first name?" 

"Well it's actually funny, you couldn't call him by his first name, not even when he was a kid. I think being as rich as he was did that to him. He thought he was the most important person in the world and everyone had to call him Mr. Boddy or sir. If you called him by his first name he refused to answer you. He was just weird in that way." 

"Did you consider him as you best friend?" 

"Why yes of course he was! No one could ever replace him." 

"If that's so how come you don't really seem that bothered or sad about his death? Your best friend was murdered in his home and yet everyone always sees you smiling all the time. Would you like to explain that to me please?" 

Xellos was silent. But the usual cocky grin that was normally plastered to his face was gone. It was replaced by one lacking emotion at all. "We all have our own ways dealing with grief Detective. This mask of happiness that I wear, I wear for two reasons. I know that Mr. Boddy would be extremely distressed if he knew that I was sad about his death. I know that he's want everyone to be happy." 

"And the second?" 

"I wear it to also psyche-out the killer. I want him or her to think that I'm on to them, and I want to make them nervous." 

"To what end?" De Tanga asked but was almost certain of the answer. 

"To see who gets nervous of course. So that I might spot the killer and bring him to justice." 

"Or her." De Tanga corrected. 

"Yes, or her." As if of a flick of a switch Xellos suddenly went back to being cheerful with his cocky all-knowing grin. 

"Well thank you for your time Professor Plum." 

"You're very welcome Detective. On and Detective could you do me a favor?" 

"Yes?" 

"If you find out who the killer is could you tell me, I'm dying to know." 

"If I do find out, I'll make sure you know. Good day Professor." De Tanga got up and gave Xellos a nod before sprinting back to the manor. 

~*~

Quite a while later, the Chief finally pulled up in front of the Boddy Manor. What had started out as a simple rain shower turned into a raging storm much like the night before. 

The Chief noted all the cars parked in front but didn't notice the condition of the tires. He got out of his car and quickly locked it before running over to the front door of the manor. He knocked and waited for an answer while he attempted to dry his clothes. The door opened but the Chief couldn't see of hear the person who opened the door. But the Chief assumed that the person said to come in since they opened the door. He couldn't hear anything because the noise from the storm. 

The Chief wasted no time in getting inside and out of the cold. 

"Hello I'm the city Chief of Police and I'm-" The Chief started to say as he turned to meet the person who let him in but was greeted with a sudden blow to the head. The Chief crumpled to the floor falling unconscious. 

The person who clubbed him stood over the Chief and grinned before picking up Dr. Steel's report and dragging the Chief's unconscious body off someplace. 


	15. Cluedo S, act 15

Cluedo S

Act Fifteen

By Relm

~*~

Luna got home from her day at work feeling tired and moody as she normally did after work. Which wasn't any different then any other day, since Luna was never in a good mood after work. 

Today had been a short day. There had been a fire scare at the office, which just turned out to be someone's lunch spending too much time in the microwave and setting off the alarm. But by the time that everyone had realized this most of the staff were gone. So the managers just told everyone to go home for the day. 

Luna took off her coat and shoes and put her keys and purse down before heading down the hall. Her eyes were in the direction of the phone, more importantly the answering machine. It flashed signaling two new messages. 

'One of those better be De Tanga…' Luna walked over the to the answering machine and pressed the button. The first message was from the plumber. He wouldn't be able to come and fix the leak in the basement till next friday. The other was her mother calling her to say hi. 

Luna glared at the answering machine. De Tanga had promised her that he was going to call. And he hadn't done that yet. It could just be because he was still busy or his cell phone could still be dead, but Luna had expected him to call her by now. 

'Oh well maybe he just thought that I would still be at work and isn't going to call till when I should be getting home. And since I'm home early he probably wont be calling for a few hours yet.' Luna sighed and went her room. 

~*~

De Tanga went over his case file notes trying to decide who he should speak to next and what he should say to them. Considering that he barely knew anything about Lina Scarlet he decided that she was going to be the next person that he was going to talk to. But like usual he had no idea where he could find her or any of the other suspects. So that left De Tanga to wander around the manor till he found her. 

The last time he had seen Lina was at lunch in the dinning room. But after she had finished her food she had bolted off someplace. According to what Amelia told him after they ate, Lina was a bit of a distrusting person. But considering the circumstances De Tanga didn't blame her. 

He sighed and got up and started to trek around the Boddy Manor. The first place he tried was Lina's room but when he knocked he got no answer. De Tanga figured that since it was starting to near dinnertime that Lina wouldn't be in her room taking a nap. 

De Tanga walked down the hall and down the stairs to the main hall of the manor. Upon reaching the first floor he noticed something odd. 

On the floor right in front of the front door the wood was all wet. Now he knew that he had trailed in some water from when he went to talk with Xellos but there shouldn't be that much water on the floor. And from the looks of the water patterns it almost looked like something had been dragged somewhere. 

De Tanga shook his head. 'I've been spending too much time in this place, I'm starting to get paranoid. Professor Plum was still outside when I came in so maybe it was him. Either way I'm wasting time standing her staring at the floor.' 

~*~

Hallas after getting himself lost again on one of his ventures in the manor, had ended up in the kitchen. And since Amelia was there cooking dinner he decided while he was there he might as well help her out. Amelia of course had refused at the beginning but Hallas wouldn't take no for an answer. 

He grinned at her as he chopped vegetables for the salad. Amelia was standing over at the oven watching over the soup that she was cooking. Her back was turned to him so he could grin at her freely without her knowing it. He wouldn't say it out loud but Hallas thought she looked cute in that maid uniform. Just the same though, Amelia probably would have clubbed him. 

While Hallas was enjoying helping out in the kitchen, Amelia on the other hand wasn't. 

Hallas' presence in the kitchen or anyone's presence while Amelia cooked always made her nervous. Or at least since Mr. Boddy's murder is has. Even more so after that incident with the dead body in the freezer. 

Amelia didn't know what exactly the people in the manor were capable of. All of them seemed to be after something. And Amelia didn't know how far they would be wiling to go to get what they wanted. 

Though Hallas shouldn't be one of the people she should be nervous about, she couldn't help it. Besides she did have her reasons. 

"Officer Beige, could you please hand me the pepper?" Amelia asked after giving the soup a taste. 

"Okay, I'll get it. And please call me Hallas, Ms. White." 

"Oh no that would be rude of me." 

"No it wouldn't. Please call me Hallas, I insist." Hallas said with a grin while handing her the pepper. 

"Okay then… Hallas." Amelia said with a sweatdrop trailing down the back of her head. She didn't know why, but Hallas' grin made her even more nervous. 

Thus the two of them returned to their tasks. 

After a long moment of silence a strange noise caught Hallas' attention. 

"What was that?" Hallas spoke while rising to his feet. 

"What noise?" Amelia frowned. 

"It sounded like a shuffling noise. Listen." 

Both of them stood in perfect silence. Again the same noise, but this time Amelia heard it as well. 

"There! There it is again! It sounds like it's coming from over there." Hallas pointed towards the fridge. He went to reach for his gun when he remembered that he didn't have it. 

Amelia latched onto his arm in fright as they inched over to the source of the sound. 

~*~

The Chief came to in a sitting position with his back flat against the wall. 

Being a little disoriented from the blow to the head that he had received; it took the Chief a few moments to realize what had happened. 

After a few moments the Chief's mind cleared up and he realized where he was. 

He was stuck in a small dark room about the size of a closet and he was bound and gagged and unable to move much. 

'Someone hit me on the head and I must have lost consciousness. That person must have dragged me in here and tied me up to make sure that I wouldn't talk.' The Chief sighed despite the gag. 'Well it could be worse, I could be dead instead of tied up.' The Chief thought sardonically. 

But then another thought hit him as he squirmed around in his dark prison. 'The corner's report! They took it! Just great… As if things couldn't get any worse! Of course I could have avoided all this if I had just put my paranoia aside and came here with someone instead of coming alone.' He stomped his foot or at least tried too in frustration. 

He looked around the tiny room to see if there was anything that he could use to help him escape. But unfortunately there wasn't anything besides himself in the closet like room. 

So the Chief did the only thing he could think to do. Try to make as much noise as possible to see if he could alert someone of his presence. But with the gag and the ropes that he had been tided with made that a little hard. 'Well I may not be able to help for help but I have to do something.' 

In the attempt to move the Chief fell onto his side and started hitting the wall with his feet. But after almost ten minutes of this he gave up. 

'Either this room is soundproof, or it's very far from where people are. I have no idea where I am in the first place. I could be underground locked in a cellar for all I know. What am I going to do?' The chief thought desperately. 

~*~

Luna glared at the clock. It was 5:30 pm and De Tanga hadn't called her yet. He was really starting to get annoyed. 

"If he thinks that he can just leave me here waiting for his damn call and not even call at all then expect to come home alive then he's got another thing coming!" Luna declared picking up the phone with intensions of calling De Tanga's cell phone and giving him heck. Within two rings it went straight to De Tanga's voice mail message. 

'His cell phone's battery couldn't still be dead, could it? It should have been charged by now. Unless he's got his cell phone turned off..' Luna drummed her fingers on the table. 

'Maybe he's called the Chief and left a message with him for me.' She picked up the phone again and dialed the police station. 

_"Hello, Vald City Police Station, how may I help you?" _

"Hello this is Luna Tealson, Detective De Tanga Tealson's wife. I was wondering if I could talk to the Chief concerning my husband." Luna asked the girl on the phone. 

_ "Just a moment please Mrs. Tealson." _The girl put Luna on hold. 

Quite a few moments later the girl finally came back on the ling. 

_"I'm sorry Mrs. Tealson, but the Chief doesn't seem to be in at the moment."_

"Do you know when he'll be getting back in?" 

_"No I don't. He left hours ago and didn't tell anyone where he was gong and when he was going to be back. Would you like me to take a message?"_

"No, thank you. Can you just tell him that I called?" 

_"Sure I can do that Mrs. Tealson."_

"Alright thanks. Bye." 

_"Goodbye Mrs. Tealson."_

Luna hung up her phone with a sigh. "What the hell is going on here?!" 

~*~

Once De Tanga found Lina he sat her down in a quiet and vacant area to talk. 

"Are you talking to everyone alone of am I just a special exception?" Lina asked in a teasing voice. 

"No, I am talking to everyone individually. So Miss Scarlet, I'd like you to tell me again on why you came to the Boddy Manor." 

"As I said before, I came here on a business transaction. Mr. Boddy was interested in an item that I had acquired in a trade." 

"Yes a blue diamond you got in a trade in Spain. But didn't you say that you came to see if he was interested?" De Tanga asked looking over his notes. 

"It was more to see if he was still interested in buying it." 

"Could you explain on how you came to meet Mr. Boddy?" De Tanga prompted. 

"Well the item I acquired was one that more then just I, that wanted it. Mr. Boddy was one of those others interested in the diamond. And when I beat him to the deal he contacted me requested I come here with the diamond so that we might make a deal. I hadn't met him before that." 

"And where is the diamond now?" 

"At my home sitting in a safe." Lina said with a slight grin. 

"But I thought you said-" 

"Yes He wanted to bring the diamond with me but I'd never trust someone I'd only talked to on the phone." Lina cut him off. "So when I came here I brought a fake replica made of glass. But it's just the same though, I wasn't even here for a few hours when it was stolen from my room." Lina laughed bitterly. 

"Someone stole it? Do you know who?" 

"Well if you are thinking that it was Mr. Boddy, I'll tell you now it wasn't. He knew that it was a fake once he saw it. In fact he figured I wouldn't have brought the real with me. But we still continued with the trade negotiations." 

"Did you two come to an agreement?" 

"Nope, he only offered half of what I had paid for it. There was no way I would sell if for less then what I had paid, when I could probably sell it for triple of what Mr. Boddy offered. And if I couldn't, well it's just nice enough to keep at home for my own personal enjoyment. In fact I didn't even want to sell the diamond so quickly after getting it but Mr. Boddy was being so irritatingly persistent that I agree to come here." 

"You didn't come here with the intensions of trying to fool Mr. Boddy into buying the fake diamond thinking it was the real one, did you?" De Tanga asked not even looking up from his notepad. 

"I'll admit that that thought had crossed my mind when I aggressed to come here. But I didn't think I'd get away with it anyway. Being as much of a collector as Mr. Boddy was he was going to realize it was a fake right from the start anyways." 

"Do you have any idea on who might have stolen your fake diamond?" 

"Someone really desperate for money and doesn't have much experience in telling the difference between glass and diamonds. Which could be just about anyone in the manor." Lina said sarcastically. "Not that I really care that much, it was only glass after all." 

"Yes I suppose. Tell me was there anyone in the manor that you knew before you came here?" 

"No. I didn't know a single person here, and nor do I care to. They are all a bunch of strange and suspicious people. Like that Professor Plum character. I wouldn't trust anyone of them. Do you have any more questions for me Detective?" 

"For the moment I don't Miss Scarlet. Thank you for your time." 

"Oh the pleasure was all mine." Lina said with a wink. 

De Tanga was going to say something more but just then two very loud screams filled the air. 

"What was that?" Lina wondered. 

"It sounded like it came from the kitchen." De Tanga said drawing his gun. 

~*~

Everyone gathered outside the kitchen doors where the screaming still continued. De Tanga motioned for everyone to stay back as him and Death went inside to investigate. 

The sight Death and De Tanga saw before them was very comical. Both Hallas and Amelia standing on chairs screaming frantically about a rat that was on the floor below them looking up in curiosity. 

"Death can you take care of that?" De Tanga pointed at the rat. 

Death grimaced. "Do I have to? It could be diseased. It could bite me." Death said with a shudder. 

'Oh well at least he isn't screaming like Hallas.' "Fine I'll take care of it." De Tanga looked around for a broom and dustpan and swept up the rat. Meanwhile Death opened the closet the window for De Tanga to throw the rat outside. 

Once the rat was gone from the kitchen and once Hallas and Amelia had calmed down everyone came in. 

"All that commotion over a stupid little rodent." Martina snorted. 

"So what happened Hallas?" 

"Well I was helping Ms White with the dinner when I heard a noise coming from behind the fridge. When we went to go and investigate a rat came right out and started chasing us around the room!" Hallas cried out. 

De Tanga just rolled his eyes and chose not to comment. He walked over to the fridge in question. With the help of Death, De Tanga moved the fridge enough to see behind it. There was a little hole at the bottom of the wall where the rat must have come through. De Tanga would have just dismissed this because it's a very old mansion, but the way the wall's molding was behind the fridge looked different from the other walls. He felt the wall around the molding and he felt someone that seemed like a latch. 

To his surprise that section of the wall was actually a door that was made to look like part of the wall. It leads to what looked like a very dark and long passageway. 'Well it looks like we found another one.' 

"A secret passage in the kitchen? Where do you think it leads to?" Death wondered out loud. 

"Only one way to find out." De Tanga grinned bringing a flashlight out of his coat. 

Hallas naturally enough groaned at De Tanga's suggestion. 


	16. Cluedo S, act 16

Cluedo S

Act Sixteen

By Relm

~*~

"I don't want to go in there!" Hallas whined at De Tanga glancing off to the new discovered secret passage. 

"Fine then Hallas you stay here and keep an eye on things while Death and I investigate." De Tanga said dryly to the cowardly officer otherwise known as Hallas Beige. 

"Fine!" Hallas huffed taking a seat in one of the chairs. 

De Tanga shook his head. He handed his gun to Hallas and then motioned for Death to follow as they ventured into the passageway. 

The tunnel was very similar to the other passage from the laboratory to the ballroom. It was both made of stone and dirt but the difference with this one is that it was more stone then it was dirt. And the stone was crumbling in every angle of the tunnel indicating that it was quite old. The walls were also littered with many small holes everywhere, more so then the other passage. 

'Probably that's how so many rats got in here.' De Tanga thought as he nudged one of the rodents out of his path with the tip of his shoe. That was another thing that differed between the two passages. This one had much more rats scurrying about. 'But why would so many rats be here anyway? Why would they stay in this dark tunnel for? There isn't anything here that could be considered food to them.' De Tanga frowned flashing his flashlight across the tunnel ground. It was very dark, the stone and dirt almost looked black under the faint light from the flashlight. But even as dirty as the ground was, there wasn't any sort of vegetation or anything that could be considered food. 

De Tanga looked over to Death so see how he was and noticed the slightly panic-stricken expression on Death's face. Death was noticeably trying to stay as far away from the rats as he possibly could. It wasn't that Death was about to go run around screaming like Hallas had done, but it was obvious that he wasn't enjoying his rodent infested venture. 

~*~

Not even two minutes after Death and De Tanga had gone into the passage, the passage entrance from the kitchen suddenly shut with a loud creek. 

Everyone in the kitchen jumped, Hallas included, at the sudden noise. 

~*~

De Tanga and Death heard the passageway closing echoing throughout the tunnel. 

The first thought De Tanga had was, 'Oh no am I going to get stuck in this one too?' But it did seem that the passages had a time lock that shit them after a while. And the only reason why he had gotten stuck in the other one was because someone blocked the passage opening. 

Now there was always the risk of someone in the kitchen blocking the entrance, but since Hallas was still in the kitchen he would make sure that wouldn't happen. And that's why De Tanga gave Hallas his gun, to ensure that no one would dare to do anything to the passage while De Tanga and Death were still in there. 

So if Death and De Tanga couldn't get out the other side of the passage, assuming that is that there was another end, then they could always go back and get out through the kitchen. 

Though it was possible that the tunnel wouldn't have an exit, but it seemed a little strange to have a secret passage that led to nowhere. De Tanga wondered who had made these tunnels, and for what purpose did they have? Of it was a more direct route from some rooms to others, but was it just for convenience? Or was there some other reason? The Boddy Manor did seem to hold its fair share of mysteries. 

After a little over six minutes of walking slowly through the passage De Tanga and Death reached the end of the tunnel. What was there to great them at the end of the tunnel was what seemed to be a solid wall of stone. 

"It's a dead-end?!" Death cried out in surprise. "Why? Why build a secret passage that leads to nowhere?" 

"We don't really know what purpose of this tunnel is but we don't know if it leads to nothing." De Tanga commented looking closely at the wall. 

"What are you talking about Detective Tealson?! Of course it leads to nothing! Just look at it, it's solid rock!" Death went to knock on it to prove his point when suddenly the seemingly solid wall opened forward like a door. "What the?!" 

"What's the point of a secret passage if it's not secret?" De Tanga winked at the younger officer before stepping through the passage door. 

Death followed De Tanga and they were surprised to see that they were in Mr. Boddy's study. The passage door closed behind them revealing that passage doorway was one of the study's bookshelves. It seemed the whole shelf was built into the wall to hide the fact that behind it was a secret passage that led to the manor kitchen. 

"It's the study!" Death exclaimed. 

"Yes it would assume so." 

"Pretty handy if you are working and you get hungry. Just take the passage to the kitchen, get a quick snack and then come right back and get back to work." 

"That might have been the purpose of the passage when it was built." 

"Do you think that the secret passages were in the original building plans for the manor or do you think they were added on later after it had been built?" 

"I don't know… But I would wager that they were in the original plans. Of course if we could get our hands on the blueprints to the manor then we could find out for sure. And unless there's a copy of the manor blueprints in this place somewhere then I don't think we'll find out." De Tanga sighed. It was very frustrating to be stuck in the manor like they were. It was almost like being in a prison. And what was the point of their captors keeping them there for anyway? What were they going to achieve by holding everyone in the manor for? They couldn't stay there forever that's for sure, they would eventually run out of food sooner or later. So why? The questions gnawed at him. "So we should head back to the others. I don't like the idea of leaving my gun with Hallas for too long. Knowing him he'd probably lose it." 

"Yeah and since both mine and his guns are gone we don't want him loosing the only one left." Death said in a sadden tone. 

"Death we'll get your gun back. And even if we don't we could always get you a new one." 

"I don't want another one! That was my special gun…" 

De Tanga just shook his head. "C'mon Death let's get back to the others." 

~*~

After nearly fifteen minutes Death and De Tanga made it back to the kitchen. They decided to not go back through the passage since Death had already made it clear that he didn't want to go near those rats again. So they went the long route back to the kitchen. 

When they came back into the manor kitchen everyone was staring at the secret passage expecting to see De Tanga and Death come back through there. So needless to say they surprised everyone coming in the kitchen through the hall. 

"Detective Tealson! You're back!" Hallas exclaimed. 

"So it does lead somewhere. So where did you two end up?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"The passage leads to Mr. Boddy's study." 

Everyone in the room generally seemed surprised but De Tanga of course was skeptical about everyone's sincerity. He was certain that at least someone was lying. How else could a dead body be dragged into the kitchen unnoticed without anyone knowing other then to use a secret passage? 

Yes De Tanga figured that the mysterious body that had suddenly appeared in the kitchen freezer had been brought into the room via the secret passage. And that made it even more likely that the body was in fact Mr. Boddy. The study wasn't too far away from the manor living room where the body had been discovered. 

'The killer could have killed Mr. Boddy and dragged him into the secret passage and just left him there until it was safe to move him to a safer location. And that would explain the rats. Probably the scent of the blood attracted them into the passage. And I couldn't exactly tell if there was any blood trails since my flashlight was so dim. I'm going to need to make sure to go back in there with a stronger later on. But still even if it was Mr. Boddy and he had been dragged into there, then why is there no blood anywhere else in the manor? Was he really killed in the living room? And if not where else could it have been?' De Tanga mentally sighed. 'Of course this is only speculation since I don't really know if it was Mr. Boddy or not. If my phone was working I could just call and ask for the forensics report. But I can't since there isn't any usable phones at the moment… Though if it's not Mr. Boddy then whose body could it be? Who else could have been murdered here?' 

"Is dinner ready yet? I'm starving!" Gourry exclaimed with his stomach grumbling in agreement. 

"Ah yes it should be. I'll just go and set the table and we can eat right away!" Amelia said dashing off into the dinging room. With all the commotion she had forgotten to set the table. Normally she would have had the table all set long before the meal was ready. 

Hallas being the happy little helper that he was went to help her out but De Tanga pulled him aside before he could do anything. 

"Is there something wrong Detective Tealson?" 

"Give me my gun back." 

"Oh right!" Hallas nervously laughed at his forgetfulness. He pulled out the gun and handed it back to its' rightful owner before going off to help Amelia. 

De Tanga before going into the dining room to go and join the others, went over to one of the manor phones and picked up the receiver. He had a small bit of hope that when he picked up the phone that it would have a dial tone and be working and he could call out. But he heard no sound from the phone. It was still dead. 

~*~

Within minutes they were all sitting at the table ready to eat. And like usual everyone sans a few were watching Gourry like a hawk to see if he had any strange reactions to the food. And when he didn't everyone started to eat. 

'But of course it could be slow acting poison.' De Tanga thought sardonically. 

The meal was pretty uneventful. They ate in something close to being silent with no one talking at all, and then when the meal was over everyone left to retire to their respective rooms. De Tanga, Hallas and Death went to follow suit and they went up to the one room that the three of them would be sharing. 

Once in the room De Tanga whom had already put his luggage in the room went sorting through his stuff in search of clean clothes. Once his clothing was obtained he went off to go take a shower. He had left his gun with Death before leaving. 

In the shower De Tanga felt even though the shower pressure was high, there was no way he could wash off all the days grime. He never in his life felt so dirty before. 'Those damn passages! First I get stuck in one of them for a whole night, and the other one is filled with probably diseased ridden rodents.' De Tanga shuddered at the thought. He was just lucky that none of the little furry creatures didn't bite him. 

The warm of the shower and high pressure on his aching muscles made De Tanga feel extremely relaxed. His eyelids started to feel heavy and it was very hard to keep them up. 

De Tanga sat up with a start when he realized that he was now on the shower floor. And the funny thing was he didn't even remember falling down. 'Man I must be more tired then I thought if I'm falling asleep here.' De Tanga sighed before getting out of the shower. He dried himself and put on fresh clothes and headed back to the room. 

In the room Death and Hallas were having another card game at one of the small tables to the right of the bed. 

Once in the room De Tanga first locked the door and then pushed a desk in front of it to barricade it from anyone entering. "I'm going to sleep. Keep that door locked at all times, and if you need to leave, put that desk back in front of the door. I don't want anyone getting in here tonight at all. Wake me up in a while and I'll take the next watch." De Tanga got into the bed. "Oh and Hallas you aren't taking any watches tonight since we can't trust you to stay awake long enough." 

Hallas was going to protest to De Tanga's comment was De Tanga was already fast asleep. 

"Man he really must have been tired. He's already out like a light and it's only eight o'clock!" Death exclaimed. 'Want to play again?" Death held up the cards. 

Hallas eagerly nodded and they started up a new game. 

~*~

The Chief sighed in exasperation. He was tired and he wasn't getting anywhere. No one knew where he was, not he knew where he was. And it wasn't likely that anyone was going to find him any time soon. So all he was doing was wasting his strength. 

'What time is now?' The Chief wondered. 'Is it the afternoon? The evening? The morning? How long have I been here for?' The Chief's stomach grumbled loudly as if to signal that he had been there for quite a while. He was hungry, but that wasn't what was bothering him the most. His mouth and throat were so dry that it almost felt like it was made of sandpaper. It was the thirst was driving getting to him. Though the dark prison he was in was somewhat chilly, but it wasn't dank. There wasn't any water anywhere. 

Just when he thought he couldn't stand it any longer sleep consumed him. 

~*~

Unknowing eyes observed the many rooms of the Boddy Manor. Checking each one, and keeping tabs on everyone. The one sight of the room being occupied by the three officers somewhat irritated the silent watcher. 'Damnit I don't think I'll be able to get into their room tonight, unless the goof is going to take watch again tonight. But I've got to see what Detective Tealson has in his case file. Hmm… maybe good ol' Mr. Boddy has something stored in his lab that could be of some help…' The silent watcher laughed darkly before stalking off to the Boddy laboratory. But unfortunately for the watcher the camera angle didn't show the fact that there was a desk barricading the door to Death, De Tanga and Hallas' room. 


	17. Cluedo S, act 17

Cluedo S

Act Seventeen

By Relm

~*~

During the night De Tanga slept soundly while Death stood watch waiting for his turn to sleep. Hallas had already fallen asleep in his chair during one of his and Death's card games. It amazed Death that he could so easily fall asleep in a chair. 

At the moment Death was a newspaper that he had brought with him when he packed his stuff from home. He was reading a sports article when he heard something outside the room door. 

Rather then move their makeshift barricade and check Death sat in pure silence and didn't move a muscle. He listened very carefully to try and figure out what he was hearing. It sounded like footsteps. 

'Someone is outside the door. Maybe someone woke up and got up to use the washroom.' Death thought hopefully. He wasn't too keen on having to deal with a confrontation without his gun. Sure he had De Tanga's gun at the moment, but it just wasn't the same thing. 

But the jiggling of the doorknob dispelled all thoughts of a late night trip to the bathroom. 

Death almost gasped. 'Calm down Death, they can't get in here, the door is locked…' 

With a few clicks the person outside in the person unlocked door. Very slowly the person turned the knob and pushed the door open. But the door only opened a crack before it came to the barricade. 

While the would be intruder tried to push the door open Death inched towards De Tanga and shook him awake. Within seconds De Tanga woke up. "Wha-?" 

Before De Tanga could talk Death covered his mouth and motioned for him to stay quiet. Then he pointed at the door. 

De Tanga nodded understanding what he was getting at. Both of them inched back near the door. Death handed De Tanga his gun. "Death, on my signal I want you to move the barricade and run over to the wall away from the door." De Tanga whispered to Death. Death nodded. 

The two of them got ready. De Tanga gave the signal and with a swift movement Death moved the barricade and De Tanga aimed his gun on the intruder. With the sudden moving of what was blocking the door the intruder went flying forward. De Tanga at lunged at the intruder. 

But unfortunately the intruder was faster then De Tanga and dodged him scooting out the door and into the hall. 

"FREEZE!" De Tanga yelled down the hall aiming his gun running after the person. But it was too dark and De Tanga couldn't run as fast as he would have liked because he ended up tripping on one of the rugs. He quickly got back up and continued to try and chase the intruder but it was too late the intruder was too quick. 

"Damnit." De Tanga cursed once he realized that he had lost the intruder. He sighed and looked around in curiosity. When he had yelled he had yelled pretty loudly but yet no one came out of their rooms to check what was going on. But then maybe it was because the rooms where soundproof. But that didn't make any sense because then Death wouldn't have been able to hear the person outside the room. 

So just to see who was actually was stalking around the manor at this time of the night De Tanga went to everyone's rooms one by one and woke everyone up just to see who was really in their rooms. But that proved fruitless because everyone was in their rooms. 

Only two thoughts went through his head as he went back to the room to relieve Death of his watch. One that there might be more people in the manor then they had originally thought and someone was hiding out unknown to everyone. But that had it's problems. How could someone hide out in the manor for so long and not alert anyone till now? But then the person could have just recently came here and is doing stuff now, or is hiding out someplace outside the manor. Of course that would imply that this person had a person on the inside helping them. 

That didn't really seem likely enough to De Tanga which brought him to his other thought. He had already seen two secret passages so whose to say that there wasn't a passage that led to one of the bedrooms. 

'It's too bad I can just go and investigate everyone's rooms. I'd be attracting far too much suspicious attention if I just go up to everyone and ask if I can go and look through all their rooms. And even if I could I wouldn't be sure on what I would need to look for. Finding those secret passage can be a bit of a fluke.' De Tanga sighed and went into the room. Death was standing near the entrance waiting for him. And incredibly enough Hallas was still asleep even amidst all that had just transpired. 

"So did you get him?" Death asked once De Tanga got in the room and started to put back up the barricade. 

"No I didn't catch the person. I tripped on one of those damn rugs. Whoever was here knows the manor well enough to navigate in the dark with no problem." 

"And had a key to this room. That's how they unlocked the door." 

"Well it the lock could have been picked." De Tanga sat down in one of the chairs once their barricade was back up. 

"I checked the lock, there's no sign of it being picked. It was a key no doubt." 

"Well since the person knows the manor so well he or she might have a set of the keys to all the locks in the place. Or maybe a master key that unlocks all the locks in the manor. I really don't know." 

"It's a good thing we had the barricade or otherwise he would have gotten in. But what do you think he was after?" 

"Probably my gun, the case file and my notes on this case. But how are you so sure it's a guy? Did you get a good look at the person?" De Tanga asked Death with a raised eyebrow. He himself didn't get a good look at the intruder because it had been so dark. So he didn't know if it had been a man or a woman. 

"Well no. It was too dark. But I just assumed that-" 

"Death a valuable lesson I can teach about this line of work, never assume anything. Because once you start assume things without having fact to back it up then you are going to get yourself into trouble. Anyway it's late, and you should get some sleep." 

Death nodded and went to bed. 

De Tanga went and pulled out his case file and notebook to review the case over. 

~*~

The next morning at breakfast everyone looked at De Tanga with curiosity. After last night's events they were a bit curious. More so considering that when De Tanga woke everyone up he didn't explain why he was doing it. He just went and moved onto the next door. 

So when he came down to eat everyone was expecting an explanation. But De Tanga said nothing. He just acted as if those events hadn't happened at all. And no one wanted to go out and ask him because they themselves didn't want to look suspicious. So no one said anything about the previous night. 

Other then that the breakfast wasn't very eventful. They ate and then they all left to do their separate things. 

De Tanga pulled Death off into an area where he was sure that no one could over hear them. 

"What's up Detective Tealson?" 

"Death how far do you think it would take to get to Melissa Potiron's home by walking?" 

Death scratched his head. "Um I don't know… It would definitely take a long time…" 

"And you do remember how to get there right?" 

"Yes. What are you getting at?" 

"I know that this might sound a bit much, but Death could please leave for her home. If you go there you could probably use her phone to call the station and get some back up." 

Death was silent for a few moments as he thought this over. "Alright. But it's going to take a long time for me to get there." 

"I know so you'd better pack." 

"Okay. I'll go get packing right now." 

"Thanks Death." 

"You're welcome Detective." 

~*~

With Hallas' help Death managed to get in the kitchen and pack for his long trip without Amelia knowing about it. De Tanga was very specific to Death about making sure that he keep his trek out of the manor a secret. Neither of them knew what some of the suspects might do if they found out that Death was leaving like this. So he was just better off with no one knowing. 

Once he was packed Death went and left secretly through one of the back doors of the manor. And as stealthily as he could he made his way over to the main road trying to make sure that no one saw him leave the Boddy property. On the main road Death let out a deep sigh. The road ahead of him was long and he wasn't looking forward to walking it. 'Well at least it's a cloudy day, this would be hell if it was hot and the sun was blaring down on me.' Thus Death began his trek. 

~*~

De Tanga decided that the next person that he wanted to question was Gourry since he hadn't had the chance to talk to him yet. Problem was trying to find out where he was. Gourry was an odd person so De Tanga had no idea where he would find him. 

Eventually after a long time De Tanga found Gourry asleep in one of the rooms that looks out into the front yard. 

"Colonel Mustard?" De Tanga asked quietly. 

Gourry just mumbled in reply but still asleep. 

"Colonel Mustard!" De Tanga shook the man awake. 

Gourry woke up very dazed. "Huh?" 

"Sorry to wake you up Colonel Mustard, but I need to ask you a few questions." De Tanga asked getting out his notebook and a pen. 

"Uh, okay sure. What do you want to ask me?" 

"Before you had said that you came to the Boddy Manor because of something very important that concerned Mr. Boddy. And you also said that you couldn't remember what that thing was. Do you still not remember any details about it?" 

Gourry thought very hard for a few moments. "No sorry I can't remember a thing." Gourry laughed nervously. 

'Well thought as much, but it was worth a shot.' De Tanga mentally sighed. "What was you relationship with Mr. Boddy?" 

"He was friends with my dad. They used to go traveling together when they were younger." 

"How did your dad meet Mr. Boddy?" 

"I don't know… My dad told me once a long time ago but I can't remember how they met…" 

"Okay then, how well did you know Mr. Boddy?" 

"Not very well. I'd only seen the guy once or twice before I came here." Gourry squinted his eyes as he strained in thought. He knew that he might have met Mr. Boddy more then just twice but he couldn't remember much else. 

"Could the reason you came here to see Mr. Boddy be something to do with your dad?" 

Gourry's eye's brightened up. "You know you could be right! Maybe it was dad that sent me here. Gosh I wish I could call him and find out." 

De Tanga jotted down a reminder in his book to try to get in touch with the retired Colonel Mustard the next chance he has to use a phone. "Well thank you Colonel Mustard for answering my questions." 

"Oh you're welcome." 

"Bye then." 

"Bye." 

De Tanga walked off and Gourry went right back to his sleeping. 

~*~

Death stopped and sat down to eat his packed lunch. He was sitting on a large rock that was not to far from the main road on the edge of the forest. As Death ate his lunch of fruit and sandwiches he looked from one end of the road to another. 

He wasn't sure how long he had been walking but it had seemed like a very long time. And what was worse is that he didn't even feel like he was making any progress. The road just went on and on with no visible end or any other residential areas. 

But on the plus side, he couldn't see the Boddy Manor or property so he must have been walking a far distance already. 

Besides of the sounds of Death's breathing and eating the area was pretty silent. It wasn't windy outside so there was no rustling trees. And oddly enough there wasn't an animal in sight. Not even a bird flying in the sky. Which gave Death the creeps. Walking on the main road as he had been Death had expected to see at least one car drive by. In fact he hoped that there would have been a car just so he could see if he could catch a ride with someone. 

Yes he was well aware of the dangers of hitchhiking but in this situation he was almost willing to take the risk. But alas Death saw no cars at all. Not a single soul drove by, the road remained deserted with Death as its' only exception. 

With his meal done and his belly full Death got up and continue his walk to Melissa Potiron's home. 

~*~

De Tanga was reviewing his notes when Ms. White called everyone to lunch. Slowly he got up and walked to the dining room where he was the last person to come. Well almost last person. 

"Detective Tealson where's Officer Noir? Doesn't he want lunch?" Ms. White inquired. 

"Oh don't worry about him Ms. White. He's busy at the moment and told me to tell everyone to just eat without him." De Tanga replied before Hallas could say anything. Hallas wasn't one to keep secrets very well and he was afraid that if he let Hallas talk he could accidentally spill out information. 

"But wont he be hungry?" 

"He said just to leave something for him in the fridge and he'll eat it later." De Tanga lied. He was a little unnerved about lying like this. 'This is okay for now, but what I going to say when it's time to eat dinner?' De Tanga thought about that as he ate his lunch. 'I'll have to think up something soon.' 

~*~

Death kicked a stone in his path as he walked. More walking, and still no other signs of human or animal life. The road remained empty and the forest remained quiet. 

He stopped to get check his roadmap when something unseen crept up behind him. If Death hadn't been so concentrating on the map he might have heard of the person that was nearing him. But he hadn't and the unknown person jumped Death from behind covering his mouth a damp white cloth as he tried to struggle. The next thing Death knew his vision went black and he lost consciousness. 


	18. Cluedo S, act 18

Cluedo S

Act Eighteen

By Relm

~*~

De Tanga looked over the three names left on his list of suspects to talk to. Sergeant Zelgadis, Miss Sylphiel Peacock and Miss Filia Peach. Who was he going to talk to next? 

There was one problem that De Tanga had with talking to Zelgadis. How could he talk to Zelgadis without hinting at him that he was a suspect? Though chances are Zelgadis was probably suspicious as it is since De Tanga had this investigation going and wasn't informing Zelgadis about the details. De Tanga was surprised that Zelgadis hadn't approached him yet about the investigation. 

So that left De Tanga back with his dilemma, who should be talk to next? In a way he wanted to get the whole thing with Zelgadis over with first but he also didn't want to at the same time. 'I'll talk to him when I've thought of some way of approaching him better about the situation. So that leaves me with Miss Sylphiel Peacock and Miss Filia Peach. I guess it would be pretty obvious about why Miss Peach is here and what she is after, but Miss Peacock's story is a little flimsy. I think maybe it would be a good idea to see her next.' 

With that decided De Tanga went in search of Sylphiel. 

~*~

Death slowly opened his eyes as he regained consciousness. His head hurt like hell and he couldn't quite make sense of what had happened. The first thing that he saw was that the room he was in was dark and that there was someone else in the room with him. He sat up slowly to see who it was. 

"Ah Noir you're awake finally!" 

Death blinked in confusion. "Chief? Is that you?" 

"Yeah it's me." The Chief replied with a sigh. 

"Where are we?" Death asked testing out his limbs. He was half expecting to have his legs and hands tied up but he wasn't bound. 

"To be honest I don't know Noir. I had came to the manor to give Tealson the forensics report on the stiff you guys brought in since none of you where answering your phones. But when I got here I was knocked out by some person and dragged into some underground cellar or something. And then I fell asleep and the next thing I knew I was in a different room and you were in here unconscious. Are you alright Noir?" The Chief said handing him some food and water. During the prison switch, the Chief's captors decided to be nice enough to provide some food and water for them. 

"My head hurts and my body is a bit stiff and sore from laying on the ground but I'm okay. What about you?" Death rubbed his head to prove his point. 

"I'm fine. Though it looks like the situation here is a little worse then I thought. Do you guys know who the killer is yet?" 

"No and my gun and phone and Hallas' gun and phone are missing. And so is Detective Tealson's cell phone charger." Death sighed. 'I want me gun back…' 

"But does Tealson still have his gun?" 

"Yeah he still has it. He's been keeping that, his case file and notes on him at all times." 

"That's a relief. But what happened to you?" 

"Well the killer slashed all the tires and stole all the spares. Basically making it impossible for anyone to leave the manor. So Detective Tealson asked if I could make my way by walking to one of Mr. Boddy's closest neighbor's home to call up for backup. But I was jumped on the way there and well I woke up here." 

"Did anyone in the manor know where you were going?" 

"No, no one except Hallas and Detective Tealson even knew there I was leaving the manor at all. We kept it a secret! I don't know what happened." 

"They must have found out somehow." 

"Yeah no kidding. Hey Chief do you still have the forensics report?" 

"No they took it from me when they knocked me unconscious. But I did get a chance to read it." 

"So who was the body?" 

"Well you might find this surprising." 

~*~

De Tanga finally found Sylphiel walking around in the Boddy estate garden smelling the flowers. Though it wasn't a sunny day out it wasn't too cold to enjoy the beauty of the large garden. Sylphiel also had a pair of binoculars hanging from her neck as she occasionally looked through them to see the birds around. 

"Miss Peacock?" De Tanga asked approaching the bird watcher. 

"AHHH!!" Sylphiel jumped in surprise. 

"I'm sorry Miss Peacock I didn't mean to startle you." De Tanga apologized. 

"Oh no don't apologize. I really should be paying more attention. I didn't even hear you come at all!" Sylphiel laughed in embarrassment. 

"Well I have been known to be very light on my feet. Anyway would I be able to speak with you for a moment? There are some questions I'd like to ask you." 

"Sure go right ahead. I'd be more then willing to answer any questions you may I have." 

De Tanga nodded and pulled out his notepad. "You said before that you came to the Boddy Manor to see about Mr. Boddy donating part of his estate to the 'Salvation Society' a group that you are apart of. Is that correct?" 

Sylphiel nodded. 

"How long has the Salvation Society been in existence?" 

Rather then answering his question, Sylphiel looked away from De Tanga. 

"Miss Peacock?" De Tanga prompted her. 

"I'm sure that you know that the Salvation Society hasn't been around for that long…" 

"Yes I know, it was only established a month ago." 

"And I'm sure you know that I'm the only member of the group too." 

"I also know that as well. Would you care to explain?" 

Sylphiel took a big sigh before starting. "It had been my dream for many years to make an environmental society with the sole purpose of trying to preserve endangered or rare birds in their natural habitat. But I never had the money to start the group and I couldn't get anyone else to join me on the idea and get it going. So that left me all alone. I didn't think I would ever be able to get my idea off the ground." 

"So what happened?" 

"I met him." 

"Him?" 

"Mr. Boddy." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow but motioned for him to carry on. 

"I met him at a charity ball. He was tall dark and charming. Very smooth, very hansom any women in my position would have been swept off her feet." 

"And were you?" 

"Oh yes. And I couldn't understand why he was so interested in, not that I was complaining though. We got talking a next thing I knew I had a date with him scheduled a week later. I don't know when it happened but we eventually got talking about my idea and he offered to fiancé the society until it got off its' feet. I didn't accept right away of course but he eventually wore me down until I took him up on the offer. It all seemed so perfect…" Sylphiel trailed off. 

"Until?" 

"Until things started to get a little too serious. I told him things were going to fast and that maybe we slow down a bit but he refused. He didn't want to slow it down at all. And it got to be too much for me and I told him that I needed to take a break from the relationship and then he blackmailed me. He said if I stopped seeing him he'd cut the funding to my society. And since my 'Salvation Society' hadn't been doing as well a I had hoped Mr. Boddy was the only source of funding I had." 

"No one wanted to pitch in any money for it?" De Tanga asked. 

"Would you want to pitch in for a non-profit group that only had one member? So I decided to continue seeing him and hoped to find a new source of funding. But after two weeks of being turned down I decided that enough was enough. Even if it meant loosing my society I was going to break up with Mr. Boddy officially and never see him again. I couldn't handle it anymore and I didn't feel the same way I did about him when I first met him." 

"What do you mean by that?" 

"He changed. It was this dashing wonderful man when I had first met. And then slowly he turned into this uptight, irritable and paranoid man. And I wouldn't exactly call him controlling but he always wanted things done his way. This change scared me and I found myself more afraid to be around him then to be with. I just couldn't take it so on the night of his murder I came by with the intensions of telling him that I was never going to see him again." 

"And that's when you realized he had company over." De Tanga said. 

"Yes and at that point I lost my nerve because he was on his best behavior because of his company. He was so incredibly sweet to me that it would have made any woman wonder what the hell was wrong with me to break up with him. I just couldn't do it. At least not with everyone there." 

"Because your relationship with Mr. Boddy had been a secret one." 

Sylphiel nodded. "I don't know why we kept it a secret. I guess that was one of the added attractions to the relationship, this added sense of mystery. But I didn't tell him I wanted to break up with him and I kept quiet about it. And then…" Sylphiel's eyes started to tear up. Though she may have wanted to break up with the man she still harbored some feelings for him. 

"He got murderer. Do you have any idea who it could have been?" De Tanga's voice was unemotional. Though in any normal situation he would feel empathy for Sylphiel's situation, but given the murder case and the fact that she might be acting and actually be the killer he wasn't about to start feeling pity for anyone. 

"No I don't. I didn't know him to have any enemies. But he always used to say that everyone was out to get his money. He'd always rant about people planning to kill him to get at his money. That was one of the reasons on why he didn't want me to leave him so much, because out of all the people he knew to him I was the only one he could trust." 

De Tanga raised an eyebrow. "Did Mr. Boddy specify on who was planning to kill him?" 

"Everyone. Everyone he knew, everyone he worked with, everyone who worked for him, anyone and everyone. Mr. Green, Professor Plum, Miss White, Madame Rose, his electrician, the plumber, the president… I mean it everyone. It was pretty rare for him not suspect someone." 

"But he didn't suspect you?" 

"Not to my face. But he was extremely two-faced around everyone. So I wouldn't be surprised if he had told someone he had suspected me of dating him only for his money. And that I was planning on killing along with everyone else." 

"But he didn't have enemies?" 

"Not that I knew off." 

"Well thank you very much Miss Peacock I'll leave you to what you were doing before." De Tanga gave her a nod before walking off. 

~*~

The dreaded hour for De Tanga came, dinnertime… 

"Detective Tealson where is Officer Noir? Don't tell me he'll wont be able to join us again?" Amelia asked with a slight look of concern to her face. 

"No I'm afraid he wont be able too. He's been far to busy with what he's working on at the moment and doesn't want to eat right now. And he did have a late lunch after all so I suspect he isn't hungry at the moment." De Tanga lied through his teeth. Death still wasn't back from his trek to Melissa Potiron's home and wasn't back yet. He didn't know how long it was going to take Death, De Tanga had thought that he would be back soon if not already. But to put up the front that he was still here, De Tanga got Hallas to eat Death's lunch in the effort to make it look like Death had eaten it. 

"Alright. But may I ask what he's working on?" 

"I'm sorry I can't divulge that information Miss White." 

"Okay Detective Tealson I won't pry. So shall we start eating?" 

Thus dinner started. 

'I hope Death gets back soon. What the hell am I going to do about sleeping tonight? I can't very well rely on Hallas to stay awake for a watch…' 

~*~

"AHHH!!" Death yelled in frustration as he tried to break out of his and the Chief's prison. It was a dirt prison that didn't seem to have a door to it that Death or the Chief could see. 

"Noir it's pointless. No one can hear up and we don't know where we are." 

"So we just give up and let whoever killed Mr. Boddy kill us?" 

"We don't know if they are planning to kill us." 

"Well why else would be we be locked up like this?!" Death exclaimed. 

"Why else? To prevent us from helping Tealson. Though I don't know him or her is trying to do by delaying the investigation like this." The Chief sighed. 'When are we going to get out of here?' 


	19. Cluedo S, act 19

Cluedo S

Act Nineteen

By Relm

~*~

Death opened in his eyes slowly. His lids felt like lead weights. 'Did I fall asleep?' He got up to a sitting position and saw that the Chief was doing the same thing. 

"What happened? I don't remember falling asleep." 

"I think we were drugged." 

"Why?" 

"Probably because of that." The Chief pointed to the display in front of them. It was a platter or food and a few liters of water. "Looks like whoever has trapped us here doesn't want us to die of thirst or hunger." 

"Isn't that nice." Death said sarcastically but both of them dived into what was provided to them. 

~*~

Right after dinner De Tanga went straight to his room. Hallas followed with a confused look on his face. 

"You're going to bed now?" Hallas asked as De Tanga started to put up a larger barricade then yesterday. 

"Yes and aren't you going to help?!" De Tanga demanded with a huff. 

"But isn't it too early to sleep?" 

"Considering how you fell asleep when you were supposed to be on your watch last time, no." 

"Oh come on!" Hallas cried. "I was just really tired that day I wont do it this time!" 

"I can't trust you to stay awake so I'm going to bed extremely early. Just wake me up when you are tired." De Tanga turned off all but one light and hopped into bed. 

The one light left on was the one on the table where Hallas went and sat down at. 

~*~

Later on in the evening after most people in the manor had went to bed Hallas found himself somewhat nodding off while playing yet another game of solitaire. 

De Tanga rolled in his bed and glanced over to Hallas. "Hallas I told you to wake me up when you started to feel tired." De Tanga got up and walked over to the near half asleep officer. He spied a look at his watch. It was around one am. 'Good enough sleep for me.' 

"I'm not tired." Hallas protested while yawning. 

"Yeah sure you're not. Has Death come back yet?" 

"No haven't seen him yet." 

'Damn.' "Well get up and go to bed." De Tanga coxed Hallas to bed, which wasn't that hard. 

Once Hallas was in bed and snoring very loudly De Tanga opened up his case file and looked over his notes once again. The only two people he was yet to speak to alone was Sergeant Zelgadis Grey and Miss Filia Peach. The most logical choice was to talk to Filia since that would be the easier of the two. But he still wanted to get the talk with Zelgadis over with as soon as possible. 'I don't like procrastinating this much. That's it in the morning after breakfast I'm going to talk with Sergeant Gray first and then Filia Peach. Now the only thing to worry about is what am I going to say to him and what the hell am I going to do about Death. He's not back yet!' 

~*~

Morning soon came and everyone made their respected ways down to the dining room for breakfast. Officer Death Noir was still nowhere to be seen. 

"Detective where is Officer Noir? Don't tell me he's going to skip another meal!" Amelia exclaimed as she served everyone breakfast. 

All eyes turned on De Tanga and felt uncomfortable under their gaze. 'How the hell am I supposed to answer this one?' 

"Detective Tealson?" 

"I have no idea where Officer Noir is he seems to have disappeared." De Tanga said in a hushed tone. 'Well that's not exactly lying.' 

Everyone gasped in shock. 

"What happened to him?" 

"I have no idea. I had expected to see him last night after dinner but I he didn't show up." 'I just hope I've given him enough time to get to Melissa Potiron's home.' 

"Do you think fowl play is involved?" Sylphiel asked quietly. 

"I haven't the faintest clue. Hallas and I are going to search for him once breakfast is over." De Tanga spied looks at everyone sitting at the table. None of their reactions seemed to be out of the ordinary. He looked over at Hallas. Hallas looked very confused at the current conversation, but thankfully enough Hallas chose not to say anything. 

~*~

Breakfast went on without much more said and once they were all finished De Tanga left on his 'search' for Death with Hallas following right after. 

"What did you mean when you said that Death was missing? I thought were weren't supposed to say anything about him." Hallas questioned De Tanga with a stern look. 

"I couldn't exactly go on and keep saying that he's out doing something all the time. They would get suspicious very quickly. So I had to make something up. And when Death gets back we can get our back up. He should be at Melissa Potiron's place by now." 

"And what if he isn't? I mean if he got there then he would have came back as soon as possible. He should be here by now." Hallas said frowning. 

"What are you suggesting Hallas?" 

"What if he didn't get there? What if someone found out about his planned trip and get to him somewhere on the road? What if something's happened to him?" Hallas' face conveyed his unsettlement. De Tanga knew from observation that most people at the station didn't like him too much and only was nice to him if they wanted to use him for some reason. So Hallas didn't have too many friends as a result. But from what De Tanga had seen Death and Hallas seemed to have become good friends quite quickly. 

"That's a lot of 'what ifs' Hallas. But if they have gotten to him then the gods have mercy on our souls." 

To keep their minds off those disturbing thoughts Hallas and De Tanga continued their little 'search' around the manor. They did this for an hour or two before De Tanga decided he'd done enough searching around. He ordered for Hallas to keep on pretending to search while he went to go look for Sergeant Zelgadis Grey. 

De Tanga still had no idea what he was going to say to the young sergeant when went to interrogate him about the Boddy murder, but he was determined to do it as soon as possible. 'Looks like I'm going to have to wing it a bit.' 

He eventually found Sergeant Zelgadis Grey reading books with Lina Scarlet in the Boddy Manor library. 

"Sergeant Grey may I have a few words with you alone?" De Tanga asked in a very calm and quiet voice. 

Lina looked up at him with curiosity, a small mischievous smile tugging at her lips. Zelgadis gave her a stern look before getting out of his chair and joining De Tanga at the library doorway. The two of them walk a great distance down the halls till they reached the main hall. 

Zelgadis motioned for the two of them to go outside to the courtyard. Once outside the two of them sat down on the steps. 

"Any luck finding Officer Death Noir yet?" 

"No not yet Sergeant. I've got Hallas searching for now." 

"So it's my turn for the interrogation now is it?" Zelgadis' voice was flat and emotionless. 

"I just want to ask you some questions that's all Sergeant Grey." De Tanga pulled out his notepad and pen. 

"Because I'm a suspect just like the rest of them." 

"No just because I'm-" De Tanga started to say but Zelgadis cut him off. 

"Don't worry about upsetting me. I was aware that they suspected me when the station didn't contact me further about the investigation. And when they sent you three down here it just confirmed what I suspected. But if I were in their shoes or even yours I would suspect me. Any person here at the scene of the crime within such a close amount of time to the death in such a secluded place like the manor would be a suspect. So that's why I've been carrying on my own little investigation, to see if can find out anything about the murder on my own. Care to swap notes?" 

De Tanga didn't directly answer the sergeant right away. 'If he's the one he's very convincing at making people believe he's innocent. But even if he is or isn't the killer I can exactly reveal what I know so far to him. Anyone could be listening.' "What was your relationship with Mr. Boddy?" 

"I'd known him for years. He was friends with my family and he'd always invite us over for dinner parties and such. Even as a kid he had great trust in me. And when I joined the police he only trusted to deal with me if the police ever had to be involved with something to do with him. Like when he had that burglary a few years back. He didn't trust anyone else to investigate the crime except me." 

De Tanga thought back on the most recent theft at the Boddy Manor. He had remembered hearing about it and how Mr. Boddy had specifically requested Sergeant Grey. "So he trusted you? From what I've heard Mr. Boddy didn't trust too many people." 

"To my face he probably trusted me. Behind my back I'll never know. He was a strange man. He didn't seem to trust anyone. But either way he preferred to have me investigate the crimes centered around his manor. I think he was paranoid that he had any other officers come to his home they would surely steal. And then soon after he'd have people who were almost complete strangers stay at his home. His moods changed often." 

De Tanga nodded while looking over his notes. Again more mentions of his sudden changing behavior. "Were you aware of his relationship with Sylphiel Peacock?" 

Zelgadis blinked a few times. "What relationship?" 

"They were a couple." 

"No I hadn't known that. I didn't visit Mr. Boddy that often." 

"But you were in the area during his time of death. You said you were checking on one of Mr. Boddy's neighbor because she claimed to see a prowler." De Tanga stated looking through his notes. 

"Yes I went to check on Melissa Potiron. Her mother is on vacation at the moment so she had been alone that night. I figured it would be best that I'd go check on her myself." 

"Yes and you knew Miss Potiron quite well because her mother used to baby-sit you when you were little." 

Zelgadis almost flinched when De Tanga had said that. "Doing some checking up on me I see." 

"Just routine investigating Sergeant." 

"Yes her mother used to baby-sit me. Her mother was friends with Mr. Boddy as well. So my mother and her mother got to know each other from her. And Melissa's mother was so lonely with just her and her kid that she welcomed the chance to baby-sit me. She knew having Melissa so far away from any other kids that having me around would be good for her. And it was we got along very well that I started treating her as if she was my little sister." 

"I see." De Tanga comment as he jotted down some notes in his notepad. 

"Who do you think murdered Mr. Boddy?" 

"At the moment I'm trying to keep an open mind. So I'm not making any assumptions at the moment of who is more likely to have done it then others. Nor am I assuming anyone's innocence. But what's your take on the case so far?" De Tanga decided to bite, Zelgadis had been trying to bait him after all. 'Probably because he wants to know what I'm thinking concerning the case. And I bet it's not just out of curiosity.' 

"At the moment I'm leaning towards two suspects. Professor Xellos Plum and Miss Filia Peach. As you know Professor Plum had been in an argument with Mr. Boddy shortly before his death. But what you probably didn't know was some of the words they had exchanged. Miss White had told me some of what she had heard when she had been cleaning that night." 

"When I talked to Miss White she said that she couldn't make out anything they had said. Their voices had been too muffled." 

"She probably lied because she's afraid of Professor Plum. But she did confide in me though right after Mr. Boddy's body had disappeared. She hadn't been able to make out much of the conversation as she had told you, but she did hear a few phrases when they had raised their voices in their argument. Apparently Professor Plum had made a death threat to Mr. Boddy before leaving the study." 

De Tanga said nothing. He just jotted down what Zelgadis was telling him. 'Funny, Professor Plum didn't mention that to me when I talked to him.' "Any other reasons why you suspect Professor Plum a little more then the others?" 

"I'm sure you've heard of their odd relationship growing up." 

"They grew up together and where best friends. But Mr. Boddy never allowed anyone to call him by his first name not even his best friend." 

Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "Well Mr. Boddy did trust me more then most people so he used to tell me some of the things he thought about others." 

"Yes like how they were out to get his money." 

"Yes. Only with Professor Plum, Mr. Boddy feared for his life. He claimed that Professor Plum was planning to kill him." 

"To what end?" 

"To get his money naturally enough. Professor Plum had on many occasions tried to persuade Mr. Boddy to change his will so that Professor Plum got most of his fortune. Professor Plum claimed that he wasn't out to get his money but trying to protect him. Mr. Boddy always refused." 

De Tanga frowned. 'Again another thing that Professor Plum didn't tell me.' "And why do you suspect Miss Peach?" 

"Because ever since I've come here she's been looking around the Manor searching for something. And for some strange reason she seems to know the whole layout of the manor very well for someone who has never been here before. And I don't buy that story about her being a relative of Mr. Boddy either." 

"Thank you for your time Sergeant Grey." De Tanga gave the young sergeant a nod before getting up. 

"If you ever need some help with the case I wouldn't mind teaming up." 

"I'll let you know." De Tanga retired back to the manor. 'So I just have Miss Peach to talk to now. Only now I have to talk to Professor Plum… again.' 


	20. Cluedo S, act 20

_Author's note: This was the last part of this fic that I had posted on my old website. Honestly I haven't really decided who killed Mr. Boddy yet. I have several scenarios running through my brain. I think it's going to be one of those let the story decide for itself as it's written sort of thing. Whatever goes with the flow I guess. Thanks for the reviews everyone. ^^_

Cluedo S

Act Twenty

By Relm

De Tanga had no idea where Filia Peach was. Ever since he came to the Boddy Manor he rarely saw the supposed relative of the late Mr. Boddy. Basically he saw her at meals, other then that Filia was nowhere to be seen. And when he asked the others no one knew what she did to occupy her time. The woman was like a phantom.

The old wood stairs creaked loudly as De Tanga made his way to the next floor. Though he figured it would be doubtful that Filia would be in her room he knocked on her door anyway. He waited patiently for an answer but received none. He knocked again and as expected he got no response from the other side of the door. Sighing in defeat De Tanga decided to continue on searching elsewhere.

...

Hallas walked around the manor 'searching' for Officer Death Noir. Of course Hallas knew the futileness of this but he had to keep up the front of Death's 'disappearance'. Hallas hoped Death was alright and was sending backup. But as more time passed that seemed less and less likely.

Trying not to think of all the awful scenario playing out in his mind was very hard for the young officer. What was he doing to keep himself busy? Searching the manor for anything suspicious. Sure he was supposed to be 'looking' for Death but by searching the manor as he was it still appeared he was looking for Death.

Hallas went through a door expecting to be in the kitchen but was surprised to find himself in the billiard room. 'This is supposed to be the kitchen! How come I'm here?' He frowned in thought. He went back in the hall to retrace his steps but ended up in a completely different room then before. 'Where the heck am I? Great I got lost... again.' He let out a sigh and tried to find his way.

...

De Tanga continued his search for Filia Peach. He had checked several rooms seeing if he could find her. But no matter where he went he couldn't find her. 'What does she do during the day?' De Tanga mused sitting down. He pulled out his case information with intentions of reviewing what he knew when he heard some suspicious sounds coming from a nearby room.

De Tanga stashed his file back away and rose to his feet to investigate. The room in question was Mr. Boddy's study. 'Funny, I just checked that room earlier and no one was in it before. And if someone had gone in while I was here then I would have seen them. Looks like someone used the secret passage.' De Tanga pulled out his gun, slowly and carefully turned the knob on the door and inched it open. He saw the back of a person shrouded in black hunched over what looked like a safe. 'I didn't see that wall safe before.' He noted seeing the painting on the floor that used to be where the safe was.

The figure didn't seem to notice that he or she wasn't alone in the room. He/she was too absorbed on their task of trying to break into the safe.

De Tanga snuck up behind the would be thief and pointed his gun to their back. "You know stealing is illegal." He said flatly startling the person.

The thief sprung back to their feet and tried to knock the gun out of De Tanga's hands.

De Tanga anticipated this and dodged the attack and pushed the attacker to the ground. He pinned him/her preventing their escape. "Now let's see who you are shall we?" De Tanga pulled back the hood and scarf covering the thief's face. And to his surprise it was none other than Filia Peach. "Well, well Miss Peach I must say this is a surprise. But if you've been sneaking around the manor stealing stuff that might explain why I've been having so much trouble finding you. Why I bet you've already stolen a sizable amount of money already."

"Alright! Alright! I was trying to rob the safe. But I didn't get into it. I haven't stolen anything." Filia squirmed trying to break free of De Tanga's grasp.

De Tanga rolled his eyes. "And what proof do I have that you haven't?"

"You don't. And you don't have any proof that I have either. So unless you're planning on arresting me could you kindly get off my back?" She spat out.

De Tanga grinned. "You attempting to steal from a dead man is proof enough for me Miss Peach."

"I was just taking a look. But I didn't steal anything from anyone."

De Tanga let out a sigh. He couldn't interrogate her pinned to the ground like this. 'It's not like she can go anywhere as it is.' De Tanga got up releasing Filia.

She scampered to her feet shooting him a nasty glare.

"So I take it you're not a relative of Mr. Boddy."

Filia didn't answer; she just averted her gaze to the floor.

"Are you working with someone Miss Peach? Miss Peach is your name right? Or is that fake along with your story? I'd suggest you'd co-operate with me. Otherwise I might be forced to put you under a house arrest and warn everyone of your profession."

"Yes my name is Filia Peach. And no I'm not related to Mr. Boddy, or least I don't think so." Filia finally answered.

"Why did you come here?" De Tanga pulled out his notepad and started to jot stuff down.

"I was hired to pose as a relative of Mr. Boddy and get an item from him."

"Who is your employer?"

"I don't know. I've never talked to him in person, only on the phone. But he provided me with detailed information on the manor and on Mr. Boddy himself."

De Tanga frowned. "You talked to him on the phone. Since you're still looking for the item I take it that you are still in contact with your employer."

"No. Someone stole the charger to my phone and all the phones don't work here. So I haven't been able to contact him."

"So why still look?"

"When I'm hired for a job I follow through with it until it's done. Whether or not I am in contact with my employer."

"What were you sent to find?"

"I don't know what it was. All I was told that it was in a wooden box with a magic square carving on the front."

"I take it you haven't found the box."

Filia shook her head.

"You do realize what this looks to me, don't you?"

"I didn't kill Mr. Boddy! I'm not a murderer!" Filia cried in outrage.

"Just a thief." De Tanga mused dryly. "I suppose if I had your room checked I'd find Miss Scarlet's missing gem."

"That hunk of glass? Why would I want something worthless like that?"

De Tanga grinned noticing her little slip up. "Glass? Really Miss Peach how is it you know it's glass? It was from my understanding that Miss Scarlet hadn't made that information public knowledge. Nor did she let anyone but Mr. Boddy see it."

"Alright I stole it! But that doesn't mean I killed Mr. Boddy!" Filia exclaimed her innocence.

'She has a motive.' De Tanga thought to himself. 'But it's starting to seem like everyone here has a motive for killing Mr. Boddy. I'm not really making too much progress here.' "Miss Peach for your sake I wouldn't steal anything more. Is there anything that you do know about the murder?"

Filia frowned in thought. "No. But I would do some checking up on Professor Plum. From what I heard him and Mr. Boddy got into a nasty fight before Mr. Boddy's death. And there's no one in the manor that's more suspicious then him. Well maybe Carbunkle Green. But I still think Professor Plum did it."

De Tanga pursed his lips in a frown. 'And another one implicates Professor Plum. Either he did it or everyone's trying to scapegoat him to get suspicion off themselves.' "So I've heard. But besides that anything else you can tell me?"

Filia shook her head. "Nothing I can say for sure. But a lot of people here are pretty weird. Like Martina Rose's supposed contact with the spirits or Colonel Gourry Mustard's terrible memory. Or even Amelia White's damn over positive attitude. Any one of them could have killed Mr. Boddy, and I bet they'd all have good motives for it too."

"If you hear anything or remember anything that could be useful to the case please let me know. Otherwise, thanks for your time. Don't let me find you attempting to steal anything. Just because I'm not arresting you on the spot doesn't mean you're off the hook. Given the situation I can't really formally arrest you. Though if you be good and co-operate I might go easy on you."

"Thank you so much!" Filia grinned ear to ear and bowed in gratitude."I'll keep my ears open and I'll try to be as helpful as I can."

"And not steal." De Tanga added.

"And not... steal." Filia repeated. "But my employer won't be happy if at the end of all this I don't get him the item he sent me to get."

"If it comes down to your life being in danger, don't worry the police department will have no qualms about granting you protection if you help out with the case. Though only if you don't steal. If you do you won't get the item to him anyway because your ass will be in jail. Do you understand?"

Filia nodded. "Okay Detective Tealson."

Once Filia had left De Tanga jotted down a few more notes before putting it back in his pocket. "Well then looks like I have Professor Plum to talk to next. Hope he'll be more truthful this time around."

...

Hallas continued to wander around the manor lost. 'I really need a map of this place.' He leaned against the wall trying to get his bearings. He placed his hand on a candle stick attached to the wall. It gave way under the pressure turning a 45 degree angle. Hallas heard the clicking noise and was confused and was going to try and fix the candle but the section of wall supporting his weight turned doing a 180 degree turn. The wall was flipped to the other side with a new section of wall facing the hall Hallas was just in. The new section appeared to be exactly the same as the dark secret passage from before.

Hallas blinked in confusion. One minute he was in a hall and the next he was in some dark room with eerie rays of light coming from down the hall. "Where am I?" He felt the wall trying to trigger the switch that flipped the wall originally. But the candlestick refused to budge.

The darkness of the room was foreboding and Hallas felt his throat tighten up in fear. With no other options available to him he held out his arms with his hands open and started walking towards the light feeling his way through the darkness.

The hall was long and dark. But thankfully for Hallas he was the only thing in the room. It was doubtful he could have handled the presence of a fury rodent at his feet.

"What is this?" Hallas said out loud as he came closer to the source of the light. The light turned out to be several monitors all displaying different areas of the manor. "Security cameras?" He leaned in closer to one of the monitors to get a better look. The monitors showed quick glimpses of an area of the manor before switching to another. There was a slight delay between the switching making the screen go black. The screen he was looking at showed the kitchen which was empty. It flashed to black and went to show a view of the courtyard. But before it displayed the courtyard Hallas saw a quick glimpse of a face reflecting on the black screen. Startled he went to look behind him to see if someone was there. A figure stood behind Hallas and clubbed him before Hallas could get a look at the attacker or scream. Hallas' body crumpled to the floor with a soft thud.

The dark figure loomed over Hallas. He/she flipped the young officer on to his back and started to drag him away.


End file.
